Where do we go from here?

The party has been gone for a year, and has returned with far more questions than answers!  The group came to the consensus that they needed at least six weeks to be able to take care of business in Westhill, and to try to find answers to some of these questions.  First, a trip to Phandalin Mine was in order, where they caught up with Gundren and Turgen.  The liberators of the Mine received their percentage of the profits thus far, and Gundren also presented them with gifts from the Forge of Spells.  After, everyone branched off to pursue their own interests.

Molish’s shield.	Pix’s bracers.	Reynard’s Bow.
Sig’s blade.	T’Sai’s short sword.	Thaminor’s half plate.

Molish spent some time working around town, including making some improvements to, and consecrating, the cemetery. Any friend of the party is a friend of Gundren, so Molish received a shield, originally intended for Sildar upon his return.

Pix spent his weeks sequestered in the library, researching the Rod, the City of Shade, and the returned Netherese themselves.  He did report that the Rod is most useful and most powerful in the hands of a gnome. With some of the little time he left his books, Pix started inquiring into possible locations to build himself a tower.

Reynard played with his puppy, and spent time in the stables with Josh. Having never really spent time in the village, he took the time to get to know the area. When he stepped up to defend Westhill against the shades a year ago, he earned himself an item from Gundren as thanks, and received a finely tuned longbow.

Sig dedicated himself to learning all that he could about the Rod, and wove himself a new cloak that represents his shift in duty. He received a reforged elven blade from Gundren.

T’Sai spent time studying in the library, and has learned a passing amount of the ancient Netherese language. He also caught up with his business interests, touching base with Zesstra and Halia.  Many of his evenings were spent with Elsa, and he named his daughter Chara Fan Tressendar.  He received a fine-edged short sword from Gundren.

Thaminor researched the Shadowfell, and touched base with Sister Garaele. He received half plate armor, forged of dwarven mail and accented with green dragon scale.

All together, the party’s research and shared stories have uncovered useful information:

The Netherese, the Shadowfell, and the Rod of the Seven

Thousands of years ago, the Netherese were a powerful civilization of magic users that created marvelous floating cities.  Their homeland was the center of northern Faerûn, where today the great desert of Anauroch exists.  One of their archmages created a spell powerful enough to steal divine power from the goddess of magic, Mystryl.  Mystryl, in turn, had to sacrifice herself to protect the Weave.  In her moment of sacrifice, all magic failed.  Most of the Netherese floating cities crashed to the ground, killing their inhabitants.  The only city that survived was Thultanthar, for its Shar-worshiping priests had foreseen the fall of their empire, and cast a great magic to shift their city into the Plane of Shadow.

For over 1,700 years, each generation became gradually more attuned to the plane itself, transforming its inhabitants into what are known as shadovar: a race of humans with a dusky tint to their skin. The ruling class and most powerful wizards of the City of Shade became twisted, dark, humanoid creatures who had merged with the essence of shadowstuff itself, and are known as shades. In the Year of Wild Magic (1372 DR), 120 years ago, a High Magic ritual brought Thultanthar back to Faerûn. This drastic increase in the number of Shar’s worshipers, along with their attunement to the Plane of Shadow, brought with it a great increase in the power of the Shadow Weave, a dark reflection of the Weave that Shar had created long before.

In response to this growing threat, the Chosen of Mystra created the Rod of the Seven in the Year of the Lightning Storms (1374 DR). It is an artifact that is powerful enough to kill another god’s Chosen. Information around the creation of the Rod was rumored to have been secured in Blackstaff Tower in Waterdeep, until Khelben Arunsun’s disappearance and possible death later that year. Majority of Khelben’s library was moved to Candlekeep when his wife, Laeral Silverhand, moved out of Blackstaff tower.

Thirteen years after the Netherese returned, in the Year of Blue Fire (1385 DR), the god Cyric attempted to assassinate Mystra, resulting in the chaos of the Spellplague. When the Weave fell, the Rod also broke apart, and its pieces were scattered. Shar took advantage of the Spellplague to transform the Plane of Shadow into the Shadowfell.  Thultanthar’s leaders have spent the time since their return looking for Netherese ruins and artifacts, as part of their ultimate goal of creating a new Netheril in their image.

The beings that attacked Westhill a year ago, and banished the party to the Shadowfell were clearly Shades, and possibly were drawn to the town by Sum Chi’s use of the Rod segment’s powers. Each segment of the Rod can somehow lead its bearer to the next part. Once found, the rod must be carefully assembled. Doing it wrong will cause at least one piece to vanish and appear somewhere random, up to 100 miles away.

Realizing that they need still more information, specifically how to find and reassemble the segments of the Rod, our party decided to travel to Silverymoon. Hopefully, the libraries located there would hold the information they seek. They advised the town council to build up the town’s defenses, and hired a carriage to start the 500 mile, 16-day journey to the Gem of the North. Their trip was uneventful through Triboar, but the party was ambushed by an orc raiding party the day after. Only one orc lived long enough to regret this decision, but even those thoughts did not have a living host for long…