Mistledale Campaign

Now knowing that Meriden and Wulgar know of the Low Road, Bronguld asks the two if they will go on a job for him, investigating why a trade route that he uses to trade with deep gnomes has been closed down. Chorn will show them the way.

They travel down the tunnels for hours, and Chorn shows them a gate to the deep gnome trade route. In a mining tunnel that the gnomes have now sealed off, the group finds an aurumvorax, a nasty multi-clawed vicious creature that eats metal. Knowing that the creature's pelt is very valuable, Wulgar tells them all to use blunt items to attack it.

The three finally manage to kill the vicious creature, and begin to carry it home as proof of what was blocking the gnome's trade gate. Chorn and Wulgar discuss how an aurumvorax hide is considered one of the best engagement gifts a female dwarf can receive, and Wulgar decides that he may wish to get engaged to Yrend. He pays his companions the shares of the hide's worth (though Chorn will not take the full value and Meriden refuses payment).

Arriving back through the portal, the dwarves are stricken with fear from the creature waiting for them on the other side of the gate, a rust monster. Chorn looses his armor and his axe, but they manage to kill the nuisance.

Wulgar tells Bronguld of his intentions, and Bronguld is happy beyond words. At this time, Yrend launches into a convulsive fit and begins to throw items around telekenitically. Bronguld is chagrined.

After a bit of persuasion, Bronguld explains that Yrend is possessed by some kind of spirit, and that he was hoping that Wulgar would fall for her and get married before she had another attack, and then Wulgar's priest friend could exercise her, in Ashabenford, where no word would get back to the other dwarves in Glen about his daughter's infirmity.

Meriden calms Yrend down and manages to converse with the spirit that is possessing her. He finds out that she is actually possessed by the spirit of a still living duergar psion female who was an outcast from her clan. Her body is alive and in a coma near her settlement, and is about to be found.

The duergar possessed Yrend while she was on a scouting trip helping to translate runes. She asks if the adventurers will help her, but she warns them they will need to bring Yrend with them.

The group travels almost the entire day to find the gate that Yrend and Bronguld's men were examining when the duergar psion found her. They enter the gate, and travel a bit into a side tunnel.

After an hour of searching, they find the body of the duergar, and she begins to revive herself. Chorn, Wulgar, and Meriden are surrounded by a patrol of duergar, who attack them one by one, revealing themselves as enlarged and wielding huge hammers.

Wulgar especially was battered a bit by the two duergar flanking him, but Chorn and Meriden manage to fight their way to him and dispatch the last of the duergar. The three help the now two separate female dwarves to their feet and hobble to the gate.

Upon returning from the gate, Bronguld is thrilled that his daughter is safe, and the duergar psion assures them that she is grateful, and that she can psionically disguise herself while she begins to travel the surface Realms to sate her curiosity.

Wulgar tells Bronguld that he still wishes to marry his daughter, but that he must spend a bit more time preparing things before he returns to Glen to make final arrangements. Wulgar leaves Yrend with a promise to wed, giving her the aurmvorax hide that he obtained for her.

Snows remain strangely absent, though flurries continue. Wulgar and Meriden travel home on the cold, clear road, having no particular events happen to them until the last night before arriving back in Ashabenford, the night of the 7th. On this night, several drow of house Jaelre surround the camp and cloak it in darkness.

They are a slaving band attempting to knock out the adventurers for sale, but Wulgar and Meriden manage to survive, escape the darkness, and defeat the drow male renegades.

Upon arriving home, Meriden and Wulgar celebrate Wulgar's engagement. They first travel to the Velvet Veil to buy a round of drinks for the girls within. As they arrive outside the door, they find their friend, the catfolk dancer Brealithra, being harassed by two local goons, the brothers Heldo and Parvis Ubler, sons of the mill owner in Ashabenford. Wulgar and Meriden interpose themselves, and Heldo and Parvis point out who their father is. Wulgar doesn't care, and proceeds to threaten the two.

Meriden enlarges himself to intimidate them, and Parvis backs down. Heldo is still full of bravado, and Meriden doesn't want Wulgar to get into a fight with the son of a prominent member of the town's infrastructure. Meriden uses a command spell and commands Heldo to urinate. Heldo runs away to clean himself up, and Parvis goes with him. Wulgar follows the pair to the Ubler homestead, where he is stopped by guards, and Meriden calms his dwarven friend down.

Brealithra follows the pair around town as they continue to celebrate, traveling to the White Hart and then to the Ashabenford Arms. At the Arms they run into Haresk, who is not particularly happy with the catfolk dancer on Meriden's arm. He informs Meriden that Naurvintha is away at a relative's farm, as her cousin has just had a baby and Naurvintha is helping her tend the child. Heresk is very upset with Meriden, although Meriden is quite innocent.

With Naurvintha gone and Haresk in a bad mood, Meriden and Wulgar decided to spend some time scouting out the Beast Country and locations for the new temple, as well as feeling out the locals in Pelden's Helm.

While traveling in the Beast Country in the winter, the pair run afoul of another troll, and a werewolf as well, which causes them great distress as they lack any silver weapons. After a great battle them manage to defeat the creature, then trudge through the snow to the town of Pelden's Helm.

In Pelden's Helm, they stay at the Inn called the Man with Fire In His Hands, a road house that serves as the tavern to the very small town as well as a place for adventurers from Cormyr that come to explore the Beast Country to stay while exploring.

The locals don't seem to care much about a new temple in the area, taking a “we'll worry about it when we see it,” attitude about the whole thing. Meriden and Wulgar re provision at the Inn and then set out back to Ashabenford.

They have little trouble on the way back home, except for the difficulty of traveling in the snowed over roads.

As the pair arrive home in Ashabenford, they are approached by a mysterious female elf, a moon elf female still beautiful by appearing strangely detached and advancing in years. She asks the two adventurers if they would be willing to take a package for her, and escort it to an associate of her. The trip is through a gate to another place, and she needs them to be utterly quiet about the conditions of their employment.

The pair agree, and she tells them that she will meet them outside of their rented home the next day, and to be ready at sun up.

The pair realizes that they have mysteriously not asked their employer about her name or what the package is, and that they took the job without asking many questions. Still, when the elf arrives the next day, they pack up their horse and pony, and take their dog and eagle with them, and get ready for their delivery job.

Fully packed up and ready, the pair let the elf know, and she casts a spell that creates a shimmering gateway in front of them, large enough for them to travel through on their horses and herd their animals with them.