The characters have now find the general location of the final confrontation, a fortress somewhere in the Drakken Peaks, the only problem now is trying to find exactly where in the Drakken Peaks this fortress is located. The only way to find out is to travel east, and take a look themselves, but their travels east aren't as peaceful as the characters would like . . .
This part of the adventure revolves around the characters encounter with an elven group of terrorists who are opposed of the human-elven coexistence of the surrounding lands.
Their travels east are going to be fairly peaceful, other than a few encounter, except for the major encounter with the Shen'la, the name of the elven terrorists.
The characters are captured by the Shen'la and taken back to their camp. To escape they have to discover what is going on, and try either to escape, or help the elves in some way.
Most of the action in the adventure rotates around the town of Baumersheim, situated on the tributary of the River Arokose, the Shem'ka'tha.
This means that it is imperative that the characters go there. One suggestion is to have the innkeeper (see Trails above) to mention that Agosta might have gone to a safe house in Baumersheim, but he is unsure wether there is one or not. This should be enough of a hint for the characters.
The journey to Baumersheim should take approximately ten days on horseback, travelling south-east, or more if on foot. Three encounters have been suggested below, to keep the characters on their toes. Of course, as always, more encounters can be added, or fewer, depending on the wishes of the GM.
Baumersheim would be best described as a frontier town, embedded in the heart of elven territory. Life is never peaceful in Baumersheim, even though most of the population is elven. Frequent attacks by the Shen'la make life that much more difficult, and it is due to the Shen'la that only a very small minority of the population are human.
If it was not for the Shen'la life in Baumersheim would be very preposterous. Agriculture is the main backbone of economy in the town, by most farms and fields are razed so often that Baumersheim has had to look elsewhere for sources of income. There are only two other sources worth mentioning. The first is the brewery located in the centre of town, which makes some of the finest alcohol in the area, and is a huge source of revenue for the townspeople. The only other source of income are the craft work and carpentry that is made in the town proper. The crafts people of the town are renowned for their work, and their pieces of what could only be described as art are highly prized.
Not a lot of detail has been provided about the town, as it is only a minor part of the adventure as a whole. For more information on how the town plays a role in the adventure see Poking Around in Baumersheim below.
Almost as soon as the characters arrive they will be attacked, and caught by the Shen'la. Therefore their arrival is going to be very short. Refer to Kidnap for a description of their arrival. For more detail on what happens when they return to Baumersheim, see Poking Around in Baumersheim below. The following article on the Shen'la brings together most of the material about them.
The area commonly referred to as the north-eastern peninsula is the native homeland of the elves. When the humans from the east (thousands of years ago) started encroaching on the elven lands, instead of starting an all out war with the humans, the elves compromised. They decided to co-exist with the humans. This has occurred successfully in all the north-eastern lands, with one elf ruler and one human ruler for each country, and the nobility equally distributed between the humans and the elves.
Of course not everyone was happy with this arrangement, and there have been blood shed over this very point. The period after the collusion of human and elf (which is officially called the Joining) was called the hundred year war, as this was how long the war was supposed to last, and did 'officially' end after a hundred years. The war has not in fact stopped, and it is doubted if the hatred will ever end. The elves not in favour fled to the woods and have been delivering blows to the kingdoms ever since. The Shen'la is one such grouped, named after the elven word for justice.
They are the oldest of these groups. They believe that the peninsula belongs to the elves and will never stop fighting until the land has been returned to its rightful rulers. The group inhabiting the Ga'ilthi are one of the eldest, and have been operating for about one hundred years.
The Shen'la are totally committed to their cause, and will not be put of by anything. They will fight to the death if necessary, but generally see the value of cutting their loses and trying again (harder) later. They are brilliant fighters and get + 4 to all attack rolls and damage rolls, on top of their normal racial bonus.
Once the characters arrive in Baumersheim, read the following passage out aloud:
Once you break through the dappled wood, you come to your objective, the town of Baumersheim. In front of you stretch a few fields, which look surprisingly small for what you believe to be very rich soil. Taking no notice of your earlier observations you make your way down a well worn path which you believe to be the main road of the town.
As you approach, you notice the large cluster of buildings which is the town proper. Tall buildings seem to rise up out the ground as you near, all the buildings made out of a mixture of stone and wood. There appears also to be a fair flow of people, making their way through the town.
"Shen'la. Shen'la. Shen'la."
The piercing cry cuts across the air. You draw your weapons and look around nervously, the strange melodious cry piercing your concentration.
"Shen'la. Shen'la. Shen'la."
The cry rings again. This time you pinpoint its origin. A groups of figures pierce through the bushes, weapons raised. As you stare, you notice the figures have pointed ears . . . elves. In their hand they hold bows, the arrows flaming on the end of them.
Before you can react, more burst from where you entered the town, a group of about twenty. They notice you, fanned out in a defensive array, and charge . . .
What the characters do is their choice, but the characters are going to be quickly overwhelmed no mater what they do. If they try and fight, give one of the Shen'la members a magical item which they can use to subdue the characters, as the whole point of the adventures is for the characters to be captured.
Once the characters have been captured, they will be blind folded and taken to the Shen'la camp, ten miles to the north-east of the town of Baumersheim.
There are two hundred Shen'la members and they are led by Meridon l'Athem. The characters chances of outright escape are pretty slim, so make this apparent from the start.
The encampment is fairly simple as it is supposed to change from time to time, as the Shen'la are constantly under attack. The encampment is made up of a number of tents, scattered haphazardly around the trees (there is no clearing). They are all made out of brown cloth, and are covered in leaves so they are very hard to see. Meridon l'Athem has a tent of his own, but all the other men sleep four to a tent.
The characters will be taken to a tent of their own, and all placed in it, except for any elves who are taken to Meridon l'Athem and are told that they can either renounce their links to humanity, and return to the homeland, or join in the fate of their human cousins. If the decline, they will be taken to the tent (under the guard of ten elves). Otherwise they will take the elves away to the main Shen'la encampment (and the characters will lose all control of them, ending their part in this adventure).
The characters, unless they are very tired of living, are going to try to escape. There are a number of methods they can try to achieve this. Two have been suggested:
If they say they are hunting Agosta, the elves will let them go, informing the characters that Agosta is an evil man, and they have redeemed themselves by hunting him down to kill him. If the characters promise that once they have found Agosta and killed him, they must leave the peninsula, then they are allowed to go free. Otherwise the elves have no choice but to kill the characters.
If the characters can't find any other way of escaping, a fail safe method has been provided in Attack below. Refer to this section, which should only be used as a last measure.
Anything else that the characters come up with and appears to be plausible should be allowed. Any solutions that involves them confronting all two hundred members of the Shen'la should be completely disregarded. If, on the other hand, they can come up with a plan that involves sneaking, or some form of intelligent thought, than this is fine. It should be stressed that it is up to the GM to decide what constitutes plausible.
As has been mentioned above, a fail safe method for the characters escape has been provided in the form of this section.
If the characters haven't escaped after a reasonable time (at the GM's discretion) then the encampment is attacked by a band of Gnomes, which are very tough to fight. The guards at the tent are in fact needed, and thus the characters are left unguarded. What they do is up to them. They can return to Baumersheim and poke around (see Poking Around in Baumersheim below) or the characters can help the elves fight them off (see Thanks below). Read the following description, then go to the appropriate section:
You notice the forest has gone silent all of a sudden, and you find this very strange. Suddenly roars of rage can be heard flowing through the camp, and the clash of steel and steel. As you poke your head out of the tent, you find you guards have disappeared, but the flow of battle is somewhere near . . .
If the characters help the elves, then they are obliged by Gem'a'tai, or honour, to let the characters go free. In fact they are so obliged that they must leave the characters alone for a month. If the characters mention Agosta, the elves can give the characters a map to get through to where they believe the fortress is, but they haven't had the time to get exact locations (justice is very time consuming).
If the characters poke around the town, all they will be able to find out, is that a man matching Agosta's description sometimes come through east to west, but doesn't stay long. He hires Rand's barn to stash his cargo, and then leaves the next day. Rand has never seen his cargo, and is not about to ask.
Now the hunt begins, as the characters must make the journey to Agosta's fortress . . .