A Lack of Moral Guidance - 11/5 session recap

Note from the DM : Ritual scrolls in 4th edition are usable by anyone, as long as you have the material components. Level doesn't matter. Ritual Casting feat (or class feature) doesn't matter. Anyone can use a scroll.

The Party decided to check out the path that led beyond the temple, and they headed eastward. The path continued to follow the northern rim of the east-west ravine, and after a while, the party started to hear a woman singing. Ander snuck ahead to check it out, and he was able to discern that there were two voices singing. As he rounded the corner, he came face to face with a harpy.

Ander was transfixed by the song, and was unprepared for the other harpy swooping down and slashing at him. The rest of the party rushed into assist, but they too were caught up in the song. All except for Xakoraki, who didn't give a damn about what some dirty bird-woman was singing about. Ander flung a burst of of shuriken at his attackers, blinding one of them. It shrieked so horribly that most of the party was dazed.

Boreas recovered fairly quickly and started hurling spells at one of the harpies. Over several rounds, he managed to damage her fairly severely, but she was able to fly away. Meanwhile, the other harpy took wing and flew over the ravine, singing another song. The allure was too much for the male party members, who were inexorably drawn to the edge of the chasm. Boreas and Ander caught themselves before falling over the edge, but Thoric lost his footing and fell, catching himself on the edge. Boreas continued to pour magical damage into his foes, and Ander tossed a few shuriken at his aerial target.

Thoric slipped further down the slope, and the party realized that he was in danger of falling entirely into the gorge. Xakoraki lowered a rope to him while the harpy retreated out of weapon and spell range. It flew away, cackling.

The party backtracked, and found themselves at the split in the path again. They decided to take the path they hadn't taken before, and two hours later they appeared to be approaching the harpies once again. Except this time they saw at least 4 in the sky, circling about half a mile away. Rather than engage an entire nest of harpies, they prudently decided to return to town.

Ander once again attempted to stir up animosity towards Xakoraki, but as he was doing this, he caught sight of the man with an eye patch looking at him as he was leaving the tavern. Ander dashed through the kitchen for the back door, only to find it barred and locked. The tavern keeper helped him open it, and Ander dashed out to stealthily follow the one-eyed man.

The man was somewhat furtive, and ended his journey at a door in an alleyway behind some shops. He went inside, and Ander heard the door lock. Listening at the door, Ander heard some movement for several minutes, and then after a longer while, deep breathing sounds, as of someone asleep.

The next morning, Ander asked the tavern keeper about the man with an eye patch, and the bartender said he'd seen him around town. He thought his name was Enwyd, and he thought he might own a shop somewhere in town. There was no other information on the man, however. The tavern keeper was also unaware of Orvalion.

They spoke with the owner of the magic shop as well, and he didn't know much except that Melchyn is the Magister of the town. The shopkeeper buys magical scrolls and such and sells them to Melchyn. The party was looking for a teleportation circle to use, and he said that Melchyn had the only one that he knew of.

So the party went to speak with Melchin at his mage tower. There was no door that they could see, so Ander hammered on the wall until a magic mouth showed up asking what the heck he was doing. He asked about Orvalion, but Melchyn didn't know much about him. He asked about a teleportation circle, and was told that he should use the road like everyone else. When pestered, Melchyn said that stupid laymen had now idea about how complex or expensive teleportation circles were, and that he should leave him alone.