Surprisingly our journey from Crag Island to Thunder Rift passed without incident.  However, I was shocked to learn that while four weeks seemed to have passed for us at Rocky Harbor, only four days had passed for Pax, Grizzle, and everyone else on Thunder Rift.  I may have an explanation for this now, but I will get to that later.

 

The first thing Jerro noticed as our ships moved from the Torlynn River into Lake Ganif was that Mage Isle had disappeared; not even the fog that sometimes shrouded it could be seen.

 

We were met at the Melinir docks by Panril and Valet with several other Paladins and several of the mages (including that pompous Rogard).  I inquired after Serina and was told she had not returned from the Western Continent.  Sadly it seemed that Menolly was still away on another mission for her father.

 

I could tell that Panril was anxious for us to hike up to the Temple and as soon as we got there, it was obvious that something was wrong.  The usual splendor of the place was somehow dulled and inside I looked aghast at a crack in the Great Symbol of Kord carved into the wall above the altar.

 

Pax and Grizzle were waiting for us in the dining hall.  Their three children, Deirdra, Dorf and Deirf were gleefully hanging all over their father, Deirdra pulling at his beard (I was amazed at how much they had grown).  I wanted to run up and embrace Grizzlegar, I was so happy to see him alive, but thought better of it when he launched several retorts my way.

 

Over dinner, Panril explained that Grizzle had brought back devastating news from the astral plane.  Lloth was waging war with Kord and was recruiting troops from the natural plane.  All this was possible it seemed because of a certain artifact that must have fallen into the Spider Queens many hands.  Panril and the mages had decided that the best course of action was for us to journey to the North where the Elf Queen lived and seek her help.

 

We set off early the next morning aboard the Saphire Zephyr (after dropping off Deirdra, Dorf and Deirf with Pax’s sister) and made good progress until mid afternoon, when we came upon another ship that looked very familiar.  I could tell right away that it had been built by the same boatwright as the Zephyr.  It seemed to have been through quite an ordeal.

 

Fingers volunteered to take a rowboat and attempt to board the vessel and I decided to accompany him.  Jerro sent over his new pet mephit with us. As we explored the ship it became more and more obvious that this was not a ship similar to the Zephyr, this WAS the Zephyr! 

 

After everyone but Pax had decided come aboard the twin Zephyr, we discovered a body hanging off the side of the ship that seemed to have been originally bound to the main mast.  The body was ME!  I can’t tell you how disconcerting it was to see Grizzle lop the head off my body as soon as we pulled it up on deck.  In the captain’s chambers we found maps and journal entries that seemed to indicate that we had tried to reach the Elf Queen at least 15 times (This is what I believe caused the time difference between Crag Island and Thunder Rift). 

 

We searched below decks and found Finger’s twin cowering in the corner.  He explained that each time we had attempted to find the Elf Queen we had come upon a girl stranded on a rock, who gave us directions that lead to our doom.  As we were listening to his story, Grizzle noticed crown that was emitting a strange red glow and he quickly smashed it.  The entire ship disappeared (along with the extra Fingers).  We were able to swim back to the rowboat and as we turned back to the real Zephyr we saw Pax pointing and laughing at us.

 

Now that we had been warned, we gave the siren on the rock a wide berth and made it to the Northern Continent.

 

As soon as we arrived Pax told us we should go to the dwarven city first (instead of heading straight to the elvish city as we had planned), she couldn’t explain it but she felt that something very wrong was happening there.  On the road we were ambushed by a ragtag band of orcs (who first pushed down boulders to block our progress) lead by some kind of shaman.  These orcs seemed tired and were easy to defeat.  The shaman was another matter but we soon killed him as well.

 

We camped for the night at an abandoned trading post.  We did have some more excitement when a dire wolf attacked the livestock pen but Grizzle killed it.  I also have a new canine friend I have taken to calling Paladin.

 

When we reached the Dwarf city we found that it had been overrun by thousands of orcs.  I wanted to suggest a strategic retreat but soon realized that Pax was blinded by rage and Grizzle was bound and determined to back his wife.  Jerro evened up the odds for us a bit with some well placed fire balls and I was astonished when we were able to force the remaining orcs to retreat to their stronghold on the other side of the city.  After freeing some dwarf children we have once again camped at the trading post.