Preliminary Round - First Match-Up: Arwink vs. Rune

Arwink's Entry

Cast
Gelanis: Marid Wizard 7
Enana: Half water-elemental/half-nymph
Katellar: Druid 9
Silverbough: Treant

Setting

The adventure revolves around a wedding held on the edge of a small like in the midst of the forest. Protruding from the center of the lake is the top half of a clock tower, once the home of a wizard of some power.

History

Gelanis is a Marid trapped on the prime plane. Originally she was summoned by the wizard Bartoss using an enchanted clock-face that opened planar portals. Bartoss had a taste for the exotic, and bound Gelanis to his will as a concubine, and later used her to bear him a son and heir. Eventually, over her years of captivity, Gelanis learned enough magic art to break free of her bonds and wreck her revenge - flooding the river near her captor's clock tower and destroying him along with the village his tower occupied. When she attempted to enter the flooded tower and research a way home, Gelanis was frustrated to learn that Bartoss had effectively warded it against planar presence after her escape, and access to the portal that would return her home is gone.

Bartoss heir was similarly blocked from the tower due to his half-elemental nature, and quickly found himself a home among the local fey spirits who embraced him as kindred. For several years he lived in ruins beneath the lake his mother created, until he married and bore a daughter to his nymph wife. Gelanis made numerous attempts to break into the tower over the years, but her son's presence gradually became a deterrent as he used his own training and the powers of his fey companions to drive her off before she could properly research the ward.

Eventually Gelanis son was slain, and the protection of the lake and tower fell to his daughter Enana. Referred to by the fey and forest-folk as spirit of the river, Enana used her powers to defend both the river and the forest from invaders. As time wore on, she became friends and allies with two of the forests other protectors - a youthful druid named Katellar and a treant named Silverbough. Over the decades the three became firm friends, but recently Katellar and Enana have become more than that, and it is when their wedding is announced that the adventure starts.

PC's can find themselves heading to the wedding for all sorts of reasons. If they have adventured in the forest where the adventure is set before, it is possible they have met and befriended the three forest guardians. If they have connections with the local lords, they may be sent as representatives of the local court that's thankful to the three for keeping the woods free of orcs. If they're mercenaries, it's possible a legitimate guest hires them as bodyguards for the trip.

The Plot

This adventure is intended to work on two levels.

Firstly, it provides the opportunity for PC's to engage in a social situation (a wedding) that highlights their existence both as unusual individuals and inhabitants of a fantasy world. They get to engage with old friends and make new allies, as well as deal with the emotions of a confused, lonely and lovesick Silverbough.

Secondly, it revolves around Gelanis attempt to break into the tower and return home. Gelanis is sure that either her son or granddaughter has found a way past the wards of Bartoss' Clock tower, but knows they will never willingly share these secrets with her. Upon receiving news of the wedding, she instantly put a plan in motion - by attempting to capture Katellar Gelanis hopes to force Enana to reveal anything she knows about breaking the clock tower's ward against planar creatures.

Events

The following are a list of events necessary for the adventure. The DM is encouraged to add encounters with NPC's appropriate to his campaign to further enhance the social nature of the wedding.

The Wedding Present

It is likely the PC's are carrying a wedding present that is actually a part of Gelarais plan. If they are traveling as representatives of anyone else, then this is the gift they have been given by their employer or lord. If they're traveling as guests in their own right, then they are approached by a charmed local lord who says he is unable to attend and wonders if the party would deliver his gift for him.

The gift is a small ring, made of beaten silver and set with a small crystal. If the PC's are in a position to ask, it is a ring of sustenance - a gift of some appeal to Katellar given his wife-to-be barely needs to eat or sleep herself. Anyone with skill as a jeweler may notice that the crystal setting has been added on later and isn't part of its initial forging, and anyone who detects magic on the ring notices two different types of auras - one from the ring and one from the crystal. The crystal carries the spell-trap Gelaris has purchased that will teleport the first person to wear the ring to her lair.

Arrival

It's customary, for weddings such as these, for guests to arrive a day or two early and leave a day or two late. Given the nature of the bride and groom, the wedding guests are an unusual mix. Several adventuring groups, a scattering of mages, druids, bards and rangers, fey of all kinds, and some woodsmen and farmers that have befriended the betrothed couple. The PC's should have more than a few days to catch up with old friends, meet some new allies and general engage with a crowd that stands far outside the norm.

Silverbough's Unexplained Emptiness Lonely Treant
The upcoming marriage between Katellar and Enana has awakened a strange and unfamiliar feeling in Silverbough, and the aging treant is in desperate need of some guidance to explain it - so he picks the characters (either because they are friends, or because he's too embarrassed to ask someone he knows and trusts them as honorable strangers who won't tell his friends).

He appears at the borders of the characters camp in the midst of the night a before the ceremony, asking for their help. He goes on to explain his problems - an aching feeling of emptiness, an unreasoning desire to talk Katellar out of the marriage or somehow distract the druid from the ceremony, a certain protectiveness for Enana and her feelings.

As the conversation goes on, it should become increasingly apparent to all but the most insensitive characters that Silverbough is feeling lonely, worried about being shunned with his friend's newfound closeness, and possibly even has a crush on Enana himself. What they wish to do about it is entirely up to them, although the concept of explaining love and loneliness or trying to give relationship advice to a thousand year old treant should be a unique experience for even the most jaded adventurer.

Exploring Bartoss Clock Tower

PC's with the ability to breath underwater may take it upon themselves to explore the village at the bottom of the lake, or to break into the clock tower. The tower is warded against outsiders, and secured with numerous arcane traps. The contents that have remained below water have long since deteriorated, although there are still a few minor magic items to be found. Of more interest is the unmoving interior of the clock, which is actually an elaborate mechanism for opening a gate to other planes. By positioning the hands of the clock outside to various positions, the dormant gate can be made to open. PC's can make Spellcraft checks to fluke the machines operation (DC 25), although the end result may not be what they expected. This mechanism is badly corroded, however, and likely to jam (20% chance) or break (50% chance) after repeated use.

The Trapped Ring
The Ring of Sustenance given as a wedding gift to Katellar has been bound with a spell that teleports the first being putting it on into a specially prepared cell in Gelanis lair. Although Gelanis has taken care to ensure that the cell will keep Katellar's head above water until high tide, but little else. If a shorter PC puts the ring on before Katellar and fails the Will save on the teleport effect (DC 19) they are likely in a great deal more trouble.

This event may happen at various times, and possibly not at all if PC's have grown suspicious of the Wedding Gift they've carried and warned the druid against wearing it. More likely, if nothing is said about the ring, is that it will occur during the wedding ceremony when the Ring of Sustenance is exchanged during the vows.

Gelanis Attacks Evil Grandmother
Gelanis has been keeping a close eye on Katellar with her crystal ball not far from the camp. The moment the ring teleports him away, she will rush to the camp to deal with her Granddaughter. If the ring teleports someone else, she will improvise and had the task of getting the information she wants over to her captors companions. If no-one falls for the trap, she will endeavor to kidnap a weaker wedding guest and hold them to ransom for the information she needs.

Gelanis is eager, but not stupid. She doesn't crash the ceremony, but instead waits until Enana is around a relatively small group. Once she makes herself known, she demands that Enana or someone else show her how to break through the planar barrier and work the machine. Unfortunately, Enana has never learned what Gelanis wants to know. Unless the PC's somehow intervene (and if they have explored the submerged clock tower, then Enana will certainly want to collect them for negotiation on the off chance they know something she doesn't), it is likely that Gelanis and Enana will end up fighting and Katellar will drown.

Gelanis Lair

Gelanis Lair is a submerged sequence of caves, hard to navigate without water-breathing spells or potions. It is roughly three miles upstream from the lake, and difficult to spot unless you know what to look for. Gelanis has trapped her lair, and keeps one chamber dry to hold her spell book and magical equipment.

Rune's Entry

This is designed to be a very short (side-trek short) scenario for four high-level characters, level 15-20, and with few encounters in it, but potentially lethal ones.

Our story begins a long time ago, in happier times. In fact, it was nearly twenty-five years ago, the River Spirit was to wed the daughter of an influential Wizardess. However, despite the obvious intensity of the love shared between her daughter and the River Spirit, the Wizardess plotted continually to impede the marriage, all the while presenting a front of approval. The Wizardess had higher aims for her daughter; she hoped to present the daughter as a potential bride for the Prince of the Realm. With a typical mother's irrationality, she just knew that the Prince would fall in love with the girl at first sight. Nevermind the girl's silly crush on the River Spirit.

Then things began to go terribly wrong with her machinations. The River Spirit knew well the animosity that the Wizardess bore toward him and decided to call in a favor owed him from ages in the past. He knew an ancient treant, now grown to gargantuan size, who had, as a sapling, been caught in a forest fire. He had sheltered the young treant and had watched after him in the many centuries as he grew. The two had formed a friendship and the treant never suspect that the River Spirit's intentions could be anything but good. Now, he asked the treant to be present at the wedding, but to be wary of an attack from the Wizardess, who, he explained, had no great love for nature and an excessive number of fire-based spells in her arsenal.

The wedding, itself, naturally, was held in a wooded glade, through which the River Spirit's river ran. Predictably, the Wizardess did show up for the daughter's wedding, as all of her schemes had failed to deter her daughter from marrying the spirit. Her last desperate plan would have to do. She brought great spells of flame down upon the woods, in order to disrupt the wedding. Then the treant made itself known. She was really no match for it, nor for the trees that it animated. She would have died that day, save for the intercession of the River Spirit, who wished to be thought of as benevolent. In actuality, his plans were far more cruel.

He asked for the treant to imprison the woman within his branches, but he also gave to her a ring of sustenance, so that her days would not be short. Furthermore, the River Spirit, in order to emphasize the enormity of time that the woman would lose, fashioned a massive clock into the branches of his treant friend, so that for the rest of her life, the woman could listen to the loud grinding of gears and the slow ticking of life passing her by. To complete the task, the Wizardess' spellbook was taken and destroyed; the treant would easily be able to withstand the onslaught of whatever spells remained in her memory.

A lesser woman would have taken the ring off and starved to death. Instead, the Wizardess plotted her revenge.

The wedding came to pass, but the River Spirit was cheated of his bride when she died in childbirth. In a primal rage, the River Spirit's river swelled and he cast the newborn baby far away from him. The baby was rescued and raised by nearby villagers, but a slight bluish tint to her skin always hindered attempts by her adopted parents from hiding her origin.

To become involved in this adventure, the PCs must be traveling, for some reason or another, through a wooded wilderness. They may either run across the granddaughter of the Wizardess, who has heard a cryptic message on the wind, or may hear that message for themselves. The message is a rasping whispering wind spell, the last spell in the memory of the evil grandmother trapped in the treant. The message says: "I have been wrongfully imprisoned in the clock tower up the hill for twenty-five years. Please rescue me. The guardian is strong. Be wary." The message is delivered at the base of the hill, upon which a lonely treant stands.

The reason for this is simply a matter of logistics. The Wizardess can see the spot through gaps in the woven limbs of her prison. This is the first time she has ever seen people come out of the woods since her imprisonment. Whether or not the PCs actually hear the message, the granddaughter has heard it and is heading to its source. She has never heard of her grandmother, nor of her story, so she will be completely impressionable to the version told her by the Wizardess.

What the PCs and the granddaughter will see at the top of the hill is an oddity: a clock tower has been fashioned out of an immense tree. When they approach, the treant will feign sleep, so that the intruders will continue, even upon close examination, to believe that it is a tree. If it looks like the PCs are about to harm the tree, the evil grandmother will warn the PCs not to, telling them that it "lives." Upon seeing her granddaughter, the Wizardess will immediately recognize her; she looks exactly as her mother did at that age, save for the bluish skin tone.

The girl has, however, no knowledge of her past. Her mother died in childbirth and, in a rage, the River Spirit cast her out, sending her away on the current of his river. She was found and raised in a nearby village, but has always been inexplicably drawn to these woods. She has never before met her grandmother.

The treant has, over two and a half decades of solitude away from his trees, with only the evil, plotting Wizardess for company, begun to go a bit insane. He is still neutral good, but he has is even worse at distinguishing right from wrong than he has ever been. He has also begun to sense that his old friend, the River Spirit, is not as good as he has always believed: not once in the past quarter century has he come to visit the treant. Furthermore, as the woman inside his branches ages (now somewhere around 75 years old), the treant slowly learns the extent of the punishment upon her is The punishment has been harsh on him as well, though; the River Spirit told the treant that she must be held far from any other trees, as she might still be able to wreak havoc upon them with any fire spells that she still had memorized. Because has never forgiven, nor forgotten, the Wizardess for her reckless assault on the trees, he is always careful not to stray from his barren spot at the top of the hill, where he can watch his trees, but may never speak with them. The treant is advanced to 21 HD and gargantuan size.

The River Spirit is identical to a Spirit of the Land (Water Manifestation) from the MM II in every way, except that this one is neutral evil and extraordinarily selfish. He does not particularly remember casting out the infant of his ill-fated bride; it is simply not something he's thought about for the quarter-century since it happened. Upon seeing the daughter wandering by his woods, he has been struck by the similarities and has pursued her hand in marriage. The daughter is flattered, but not in love with the spirit. Nevertheless, she is contemplating the marriage.

The treant will stay silent during this exchange; he is no longer sure that the events that transpired were very different from the evil woman's telling. She is sure to tell about her use of the fire spells at the wedding, with speech that is as repentant as possible.

Upon learning that the granddaughter's suitor is the cruel punisher of this poor old woman, the granddaughter will swear to free her, asking the PCs for aid. If any plans made in the presence of the grandmother (and, hence, the treant) involve violence to the tower, the treant will make itself known at that time. It is possible for the PCs to destroy the treant, but ideally, they will come to a better solution, as the treant is not the villain; he merely holds to his oath.

It may well be possible for the treant to be convinced to let the Wizardess go, but only if the River Spirit can be tricked into granting her freedom. He is less likely to come to this conclusion if plans spoken before him involve causing harm to the River Spirit, which is, of course, the Wizardess' ultimate aim. If the PCs will help her to escape, the granddaughter will be willing to go through a wedding with the River Spirit, provided that he set her grandmother free as a wedding gift to the bride.

If this plan comes to fruition, the River Spirit will yield to his incendiary desire to wed this spitting image of his lost wife. When (if) the PCs aid the daughter to escape, they may well need to fight the River Spirit; he will fight to the death in this particular battle, but he will not necessarily fight toe-to-toe. He knows his strengths and he uses them. If the PCs end up killing the River Spirit, the Wizardess will be most pleased. If they do not, the Wizardess will ever after seek a means of doing so, or convincing others to do so for her.

The treant may become an ally of the PCs against the River Spirit at some point, if he continues to become more bitter toward him, but if he ever sees any one of them, or the Wizardess, casting fire-based spells in his trees again, he will kill, if at all possible.

The Wizardess is a level five evocation specialist. The granddaughter may have a PC class, but no more than five levels in whatever class she is given.

Possible rewards in this scenario are the ring of sustenance and friendships or alliances between potentially powerful characters (the treant, the Wizardess, or the granddaughter).