Quick note: It's basically impossible to make an interesting story about a dungeon crawl. I'll cover the key points and move on. Sorry.


The 15th of Winter's Rise.

None enjoyed spending another night in this tomb, but the frigid air outside offered little choice. There were angry elven ghosts, shadows, and skeletons... and yet there were supposedly secrets held here, so they pressed on, exploring the fortress. They found the rooms of the commander of the fortress, and even his crown for which he planned to return. Given the age of this place, he must be long dead by now, though perhaps in the Abril of today that is less of an obstacle than it once was. They also found a room with several very old maps of the region, though almost all of the places marked have surely moved by now. Livid could not help but notice that this was strangely large for such an outpost. There were banners to indicate it was directly overseen by the king, but she had never heard of Coura'Tor'Dara before. A forge makes sense for any place with soldiers, but this place even had a kiln for pottery.

They eventually found their way upwards to a bowl near the top of the mountain. It was a long climb up the stairs, and they worked out that there was a lever that could bring boulders into the stairwell, making it impassible. Given the security of the front door and this being the only other entrance, clearly this keep was intended to endure the word of attacks. The bowl was for frost elves who cannot bear to be underground for too long. Though they live in a cold place, they are still elves. Under the snow, they found some brave explorers who managed to locate the bowl, but could not find a way into the keep. Presumably they froze, but their items survived the winters admirably.

Eventually, they made their way to the lower level. They can't know whether these rooms were ever filled, but in the very least there was space for a lot of frost elves. Hidden beneath a stone, they found some very paper.


This explained why the frost elves left this place. It also told the party that, if wronged, they could kill themselves in the name of Sagron, the god of vengance, to curse those who wronged him. This is perhaps not the best choice, but it an option.

It also indicated a possible location for the Grove of Aldersalm, and the commander's maps indicated the Lorelans pass. The party explored a little further into the keep, finding the rooms of a wizard, before finally deciding they could take no more of this underground lair. They headed to the Lorelans pass on the 18th day of Winter's Rise.

In the pass, they came upon a group of wild elves. These elves seemed surprised and angry at seeing a frost elf in the company of humans. Given the very long lives of high elves, it is possible they are more familiar with the events that transpired centuries ago. They were led by Larenleaf, a ranger, who was quite eager to start killing. It was the wise words of Sir Alestair Morningseeker who conveyed that they are all on the same side now that the dead roam Abril. Larenleaf did not want to believe him, but it was clear he could not justify killing them now. He told them they may pass, but should soon depart the lands of White Sparrow tribe.

Interesting, some might note, that the wild elves now speak of tribes whereas the note they found spoke of a lord and lady, and the visage of the ghosts did not convey a mere ruler of a tribe. Have the wild elves splintered since that time? Is that why they are wild?

The party found the trail to the grove through a defile. It was roughly triangular, with entry at one corner and the opposite edge dropping away into a cliff with a beautiful view. The remaining sides were the steep sides of mountains. The grove was full of trees, and at the center was a small pond and perhaps the remains of some sort of altar. Upon searching, a deep yet kind voice said "May I help you?"

They realized that one of the trees was actually a treant... a very old treant. His name is Onalorwis, and he had been there a very long time. He seemed almost pleased to have visitors despite he was there to guard the tomb of his friend, Aldersalm. He told them all about Aldersalm. He was a powerful druid, and he had a particular disdain for the undead. He also helped to unite the last of the elven tribes. This was before humans made their way to the area. Onalorwise estimated his friend had been dead for about 1200 years, but he didn't seem to sure about that. He was sad that elves didn't live longer.

Onalorwis didn't want to let anyone into the tomb, but upon hearing they had been sent by Lontrora'El for weapons to combat the undead, he relented. He was astounded that they had actually met her, a spirit of Abril! He moved aside and revealed a passageway into the ground. The cave took a winding path before the party bravely fought some rust monsters. Then they found the door to the elemental chamber, marked "Here lies Aldersalm."

The corners of the chamber were marked with colors of the elements. Taking far less time to move themselves into the appropriate corners than one might have anticipated, they found themselves battling an elemental for each one of them of the opposing type. These elementals, however, had an advantage... every time they hit, the one taking damage had to resist his own connection to Abril or take more damage. It looked like the heroes might fall for a time, but they prevailed. In their moment of victory, they were quickly flashed with the lights of the two moons of Abril, Acringor (silver) and Acoursta (gold). Again, their connection to Abril was tested, but this time they strove to understand the depths of the moons and Abril together. Those who succeeded in that moment were rewarded more greatly than those who did not. By the light of the full moon, they may choose a boon until the next full moon.

Yes, the moons have different cycles.




Another door appeared in the flash of the moonlight. They entered.

Inside was a stone sarcophagus. Carved into the far wall was an acorn set into a thorny palm. Renee noted this was the same symbol seen in Old Flent at the shrine to Leti. On the right wall was mounted a black quarterstaff, and engraved beneath it were the words "To defend Abril when the dead cross the veil." There was a rack with grey layered leather armor and a grey cloak. To the left was a carving of an owl, and beneath it the words "Sir Hooty."

When they returned to the surface, Onalorwis was pleased that Aldersalm was undisturbed, and he smiled at remembering Sir Hooty.

It had been a long journey into the north; cold and getting colder. They set off for Kinver to meet with Sir Alestair's father's old friend, and ultimately to a temple of Maeles to check messages from that angry priest.

Looking back, Renee briefly wondered who would guard his own tomb.

I'll need to purchase some very paper at the next town. It sounds very.

PROOF READING TAKES TIME DON'T BE A DICK

It was actually Renee who noted that the Thorny Palm was the same one we had seen in Old Flent. You gave me some shiny new experience points for it and everything.

Also, Renee shall guard his own tomb. No one else could possibly do the job as well.

Damn. When I was writing this I thought "Wait... was it Renee or Brenaed? I know it was to my left because I remember looking to my left. I remember being please that someone noticed... fuck it, my odds are 50/50 of guessing correctly."

I think very paper is a bit overrated. You're generally fine with entirely paper, largely paper, or totes paper- and honestly, lets be real here, at our socioeconomic level, kinda paper is good nine out of ten times.



Meh, I bet it only works for emo forest elves.




Jokes aside, the Long-edge Renaurd effect seems real. The characters are wildly different, and are played extremely differently, but I honestly suspect the phonetic similarity has some odd effect in how we store the information or something. I bet there's a real explanation for why it's so hard to separate the two, despite having different minds eye images of the characters, and plenty of objective hooks.



Your summary has plenty of detail about the non-dungeon parts, I think you did great. The odd thing is normally how a dungeon crawl takes an entirely unpredictable amount of time, both in and out of game. There was plenty of story once we were done puppy piling in doorways and sweating cover rules.

In this case, I don't think so. The way I remembered it was looking to my left. I could not remember how far left I looked. My memory is very... direction oriented. Very often I remember that I put something against a north wall, for example, but I can't fucking remember which room. I do not know whether that is how everyone thinks, if I'm a fucking weirdo, or somewhere in the middle.

I definitely don't think in names. Names are almost like... solving a problem in metric units, and then at the very end converting into English units because the professor is a dick.

No, you're wrong, they are both on the RIGHT, not the left!

I think that it could well be both (aka, you have several ways to distinguish, and a couple of the fast-access dimensions have the same value). I mean, classically we've had a full table, and you (or I) never confused any other characters.