The Emissary

Waiting for the party on the docks near the citadel is Katarina Hessenlichtenkleinheitsgeit, a King’s Marshal. She carries a sword and wears leather armor, has four training pins, (two of them gold) and maintains a proud bearing. When the party steps off the boat she steps forward asking for (she consults a piece of paper) “Rad-Aiance” and “Zap-Heel”, Breverin and TAK-ak. Once the party is identified she asks if they are willing to do a service for the king.

The horses are unloaded and she whisks them through the city, heading away from the Citadel. Katarina takes them to the grove hill where there are a few ruins visible through the trees and scrub. She explains a bit along the way, but says the details will have to wait for Tracheous.

“You may have seen a dark rider passing through Thand recently. This is an emissary from the new rulers of Burok Torm. We think that these are the same creatures that kicked out the dwarves – the Scarlet Brotherhood tried to take the fortress city back but wasn’t able to. These entities are now calling themselves the Eternal Legion of the Fourfold Puissance, whatever the hell that’s supposed to mean. This emissary has asked to set up a formal embassy in Thand. The King has been advised that this is a ruse of some kind, and that the real goal of the emissary is to get access to the Sapphire Sanctuary. I’ll let Tracheous explain the rest, it gets complicated.”

The party climbs up the difficult trail to the top of Grove Hill where they find a number of tents set up and a crazy looking man in a stained apron pouring over a map. This is Tracheous, an expert in Eldai matters, focusing on pre-cataclysm religion. The map is held down by some curious looking statues and an ornate dagger hilt – apparently Eldai relics.

“Ah, yes, great, glad to have you! Say, are you a half-orc? You’ll have to let me take a look at your gall-bladder once this is over. Oh and did you see the emissary as he was traveling through Thand? Yes? Where did this happen? King’s Arms or King’s Rest? Great great, yes, that clinches it, definitely an odd pattern…”

Two weeks ago there was an earthquake on the island, centered here on Grove Hill. Based on a number of factors – the frequency of earthquakes here, the size of this quake and the amount of damage caused elsewhere - we’ve concluded that it was not a natural event. Something caused it, probably magic but not certainly. Of course we didn’t even bother to check on this until just last week, when the funny reports of the emissary started coming in. No reason to! No one would have thought those events were linked! To make a long (but fascinating) story short the earthquake revealed a passage into the sub-basement of one of the Eldai ruins here on Grove Hill. Early in my career I was able to identify this ruin as a temple of the primary pre-cataclysm Eldai god, known to them as Na-Pha’al Thalon. We call it Nathalon. With a little bit of work we were able to clear the entryway and send someone in. That was just yesterday. Our scout – Katarina here – described a circular room covered with peculiar carvings, unfortunately too damaged to decipher. There was also a really funny feeling. Not very helpful that, but whatever. Katarina has been called to the citadel, apparently my work here isn’t a very high priority. But she has some friends that knew you were coming and thinks you might be willing to take her place.

“””I’m looking for any sort of odd artifacts, carvings, tomes, stone tablets etc. that might be of interest to this emissary. We want to clean this place out on the off chance the King agrees to allow an embassy being set up, or more likely once the emissary finds someone on the mainland willing to come here and investigate for them. I haven’t been able to convince anyone that my theories are correct and that this is important. “””