Battle Under The Grandfather Tree

• Our session begins with us under the Grandfather tree. Caulkin speaks with the Cleric of Beshaba. There is an elf skewed to the trunk of the tree who the cleric identifies as being #2. She reveals that one nearby Shadow Shard has been activated and so has another in a different location. RC pulls up his bow, aiming it at her asking to know where the Shadow Shard is. She calls to her brother who steps forward from what seems like a tunnel coming up from under the tree. He pulls the sword out from the trunk of the tree that was pieced into the stomach of #2, whose lifeless corpse falls to the ground.

• “Are these the people you speak of, sister?” he asks her. She confirms this. The male asks if they would make their father proud by fighting with us. “It took a little bit of energy to activated the Shadow Shard, but it would be so fun to report #5 back to our Father without him assigning it to us.”

• During battle the brother uses Power Word Kill on Pearl, killing her instantly. Brylwynn uses Raise Dead on Pearl, bringing her back from the dead, albeit with some disadvantages to her power and strength. 

• The battle rages on with both Brother and Sister using up to 8th level spells on us. 

• The brother and sister use a spell (5th or 6th level maybe?) and teleport away from the battle. Glittr spits on the ground where they stood and says, “cowards.”

• We decide to investigate #6 who is still near us. We strip him of any weaponry before Brylwynn uses healing word (7hp) to revive him. He wakes and shouts, “No! The Shadow Shard! The Elder!” After waking he seems a little dazed, but does not immediately attack us. He asks where the brother and sister had gotten and we let them know he got here after most of the action had happened. He let us know that she teleports them very far away

• The Elder is an old ancient elf, the Guardian of the Shard.

• Caulkin speaks and #6 seems surprised to see him. We ask him what he knows about the brother and sister. He winces in pain for a brief moment and he looks down at his chest. There is a #2 on his chest now, where the #6 once stood. He says, “I see what you all mean. I guess The Elder did not survive.”

• Caulkin is taken aback by that. He asks why his number hasn’t decreased. #6 says, that’s because I (he) step up when another assassin can’t complete his duty. #6 (#2) said that his grandmother said that Caulkin was a traitor. 

• #6’s village is a day's journey away from here. He says his village has been defending the Shadow Shard for centuries. The Elder senses that there has been much danger emanating from the Start Mounts. The Elder was worried about this and came to the Grandfather tree to defend it with villagers. 

• If #6 has known he says, he may have taken his sacred duty more seriously. Caulkin asks what would happen if someone were to have more than 1 Shadow Shard which, #6 does not know what to answer to.

• Whenever we (him and Sister) would flee, they would return to a temple in Jalanthar. It was more or less a grove to Beshaba.

• We would like to see what lies beneath the tree? We take the path down under the tree. There is an earthen semi-circular room. We see an obsidian stone, similar to the one we saw in the maze, with writing on it. The writing is glowing purple runic energy.

Summary

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