The Lost Son of House Vaelithar 

Edwina gathered us because there is some assignment in Thiramin to find a lost son of Aldric Vaelithar.  She will get Elven chain out of the deal if we are successful. His son Eiran led a party into the Pinecrest Mountains and didn’t come back.  The first few weeks was just an assumption that it was a delay in travel.  Then Aldric sent out his own scouts who didn’t even find a camp.  So we are being commissioned to find the son.  Dead or alive.  Probably dead.  Bummer. 

Aldric  said, “It’s been a number of months since I lost the boy.  My other son useless.  He doesn’t take anything seriously. Even when he tries he still fucks it up.  I’m sure you can find him at one of the taverns chasing loose women.”  Apparently Eiran mentioned in his last letter that he had traveled to Hfar before going into the mountains.  He hired a dwarven guide Thorgrim.  We should find him or his coworkers to be pointed in the right direction.  He’s heard a tale of a set of ruins deep deep in the mountains. He really should have tried something easier that that for a first mission.  Like sewer work.  The ruins past Titan’s Peek Mountain.   

In Hfar we found as big as Mimic, but look larger because they are super fluffy and adorable.  I pet them all.  The owner pulled them Thorglad.  “Took the wee elvan lad most of the way.  We won’t go there.  It’s cursed.  He doesn’t know why, he says we’ll know it when we see the mountain.  50 gold. And dragon firemoss 

There was the skeleton of something before the giants.  I can’t describe how massive it, or the sword through its chest, was.  Thorglad will wait for us 2 days.  We’ll find the ruins between these two mountains.   

Ko’bal talked about chicken clouds and Thorglad and I were so confused.  Then he started talking about his sex pillow pants.  So gross. 

We began our decent into the mountains and found the ruins.  Large smooth stone buildings coming out of the ground.  This construction was something ancient but even more than that it should have eroded long ago.  The stone is still smooth as if it was carved yesterday.  I’ve never seen anything else like this in any of the books I’ve studied.  We came to a huge set of double doors 20 feet wide and 80 feet high.  They were open just enough fora group of humanoids to squeeze through. 

Inside there was no markings on walls.  Smooth stone floors.  Edwina sent her manifest mind to scout ahead that saw some skulls and a “bird thing with weird hotdogs”.  What...?  The Sister charged in to attack it.  The Sister knew that these were aberrations that have existed longer than the cycle that anything should have lived.  She believes this place should be exterminated.  We harvested some parts. 

We found the skulls of giants outside a room full of bones.  Everything was covered in frost, but we did notice some boot prints headed down a tunnel.  We follow them to Eiran’s corpse.  His body was covered in electrical burns and a look of terror frozen on his face.  He had the armor Edwina sought, red cape, and a short sword.  Ko’bal wrapped the sword inside the cape for Aldric.  We decided to hunt the creature that killed him.   

The stonework nearby had the frost damaged as though something hot came blasting down this way.  We traveled through the tunnels and found a creature that could blast back to back lightning bolts.  Bram ended it with a haymaker.   

Thorglad was waiting for us very surprised we were alive.  We headed back to Thiramin to return the sword and cape.  Aldric gave us 240 platinum for telling him his son died with his sword in hand and that we avenged his death by destroying the monster that killed him. 
 
On the way out of town we partied with the useless son.  I now have a hook up for northern firemoss.

A momentous occasion. We had gathered the party. Calliope had to tend to a last minute guild emergency, so she sent Ko-Bal and Zylrie in her place. They were excellent amongst the group. 

We used the teleportation circles to get us to Thiramen, where we met Lord Aldric at his home. He talked about his son, how proud he was of him. But, we noted that he fully ignored his other son, and there weren’t even any portraits of him anywhere in the home. Aldric informed us that Eiran had contracted out a Sherpa company from northern Hfar to guide him through the mountains. So, we rode the train to Hfar and did the same thing. 

Thorglad was our guide, it was his brother, Thorgrimm who had taken Eiran. He took us all the way to the base of Titan’s Peak mountain, but wouldn’t go any further as it was cursed, and told us we’d know why when we saw it. And we did. As tall as the mountain itself was this titanic skeleton, larger than any giant that’s ever existed. Nearby, we found the ruins. Smooth and unyielding to any weather, though we knew they were more ancient than possibly even the mountains surrounding it. 

Inside the temple, we first found some weird hotdog-pistachio-bird demons. Very strange, yet more ancient than any living thing should have been. Tassi nearly died, but we eventually dispatched the aberrations. Afterwards, through some exploring of the chambers, we found it. Eiran’s body, scorched and frozen for the rest of eternity into a pitiful fae full of terror. We could have ended it there, taken his sword, cloak, and chain shirt back, but we knew we needed closure for Lord Aldric. So, we carried on through the tunnels. 

As we progressed, we eventually came to a long corridor. At the end was this strange creature which seemed to have someone control over time itself, attacking before most of our party could react. Right off the bat, it cast a meteor swarm upon us. I was down. So were Zylrie and Mimic, and Tassi nearly fell as well. It was her magic though that brought us back and we were able to continue the fight and slay the creature. 

NOTE: Next time, prepare COUNTERSPELL

As this strange creature was casting lightning bolt on us, we knew that was enough closure and vengeance. We received a pounding as well, so we decided to head back to Thiramen to finish our mission. In those tunnels still lies uncounted and untold horrors. 

Lord Aldric thanked us, rewarding each of us with a sizeable sum of platinum pieces, and me with Eiran’s Chain Shirt. 

All in all, the mission was a success and I hope that we can return to the temple soon to clear out what monstrosities lie inside.