Dorn's Deep

Reòthadh casts his mind back through the centuries of frozen imprisonment, attempting to reach the far side of an ocean of maddening solitude and access his finer memories of his homeland.

As he does so, he experiences fully the weight of that seclusion, and the true implications of the fact that time has continued to pass without him. His home in ruins. What friends and family he had gone - most likely slaughtered by the orcs that swarmed this place.

Reòthadh tries to push the thoughts aside, but there is something there. Something that caused all of this.

A suppressed memory rises to the top of Reòthadh's mind. A memory of a creature. A person. A drow!

The Heartstone Gem flares with renewed light, and a second vision follows.

This time, Ras sees the Great Oak of Kuldahar. At its roots sit the druidic circle of standing stones, and within the circle is Halla. The woman stands with feet in a wide stance, Arundel's staff held in both hands. Before her is a woman of elvish blood with white hair, clad in extremely fine black armor. Ilmadia. Standing well back from the two women are dozens of gathered townsfolk.

Zenithral's mother holds out one imperious gloved hand, but Halla stands resolutely against whatever demand is made, her eyes glowing a feral yellow. Ilmadia draws her sword, which bursts into flames that ripple black, red, and green. Halla raises the staff, and the scene immediately darkens as storm clouds roil above. Wind whips about the druid woman, causing her clothes and hair to rise. A moment later lightning from on high strikes the ground between Halla and Ilmadia, a warning.

Ilmadia lifts something strapped to her arm - a mirror? A shield. She steps forward into the storm, hair lying perfectly still as if in simple denial of nature's wrath. The sword crackles with energy, and Ilmadia launches herself at Halla, blade first...

And suddenly Halla is a giant spider with serrated legs. She blocks the magical sword with a leg of hardened chitin, and barrels forward with fangs bared...

The scene freezes mid-motion and changes. Ras finds a connection between Halla and the circle, and the enormous roots all about. To Ras' eyes, the druid appears full to the brim with nature's magic. Ras finds himself remember his own time acting as a conduit of Kuldahar, on the night that the orogs attacked.

Then, deep within, he feels a confirmation from Silvanus himself that Halla is acting with the full might of an archdruid. As things are, it is highly unlikely that Ilmadia will win a battle against her in this seat of druidic power.

The vision ends.

Within the box, Zenithral finds an item he has only seen on rare occasions: his mother's wedding ring, given to her by Erestor. Much to his surprise, Zenithral finds that not only can he channel his spells through the ring's gemstone, but that with a little effort the stone can be removed from the band, an act that sends the stone floating about his head and granting him increased speed of thought.The party sets out into the passages and caverns of Dorn's Deep with renewed determination. Between Reòthadh's ancient memories, Zenithral's more recent ones, and Ras' divination from the previous evening, the companions move quickly through the halls and chambers.

Though Ug lived here long ago, his mother's gnomish clan was never allowed into the deepest bowels of the dwarven citadel. As the group passes ruined statues and cracked floors, Ug begins to remember things that he never understood as a younger child...

The dwarves who lived here were industrious folk, but mistrusting of the other races. As relations soured with their greatest allies, the elves of the Hand of the Seldarine, the dwarves began to crack down much more harshly on the immigrants who lived within the city - including Ug's family. As Ug himself was an outsider to the gnome clan, it no wonder to him now that the gnome elders wanted the too-large and too-prominent goliath boy gone.

Looking around at the ruins now, Ug cannot help but wonder what might have happened if he had stayed...