The party meets with the Captain and Reis volDjor to receive their orders. They are informed that Alice Rain was tracking rebel movements, and is uncharacteristically late reporting in. The party, being expendable and untested, where adequate choices to see to her whereabouts.

The party gathered themselves and set off along the Hawk's Road. They took a shortcut through the Elderwood, shaving leagues off their trip. While camping in the forest, they encountered a Winter Wolf, which curiously did not attack, but rather contented itself with stealing the carcass of a boar Theia's dragon had slain.

By morning, they continued. When they rejoined the Hawk's Road, they were waylaid by bandits. Between Taren's sniping and Theia's spear, they overcome them easily, taking a few captive. Their captives gave them valuable information. (Was one released?)

Afternoon saw them to the Shadow Brook. They followed it downstream and found Hawkstone Keep at the bend, just before the falls rejoining the brook with the Burinflow. They waited until cover of darkness before sneaking into the keep via an old drainage pipe the bandits hadn't discovered.

Emerging into the bowels of the keep, they ascended quietly, reconnoitering before advancing. Faen was a bit too rash after several clean kills, and the outer guards soon raised the alarm. Battle began, made all the more chaotic by a rainstorm, though the noise of it kept the bandits inside the keep from hearing the commotion.

At battle's end, near two dozen men were slain, comprising the entire outdoor guard. The party's only casualties were minor injuries sustained by Theia and her dragon. Highlights included some excellent sniping by Taren and a chance encounter with a Potion of Flight which allowed Theia to ascend to the highest towers and destroy near a dozen snipers with lightning.

The party gathered themselves in the stables to see to wounds, take stock of spoils, and consider their next moves. Before they could finish, they were found out...by Alice Rain.

Alice, seemingly none the worse for wear, thought it was cute that the Captain had sent after her. She assumes command of the party's mission, first explaining what she'd learned.

The keep had been captured by a Sailleen mercenary named Mhyr, a wizard of the Order of the Ring. He had been taking captives from nearby villages, to what purposes she'd not yet learned. She cautioned them about his power, but gave them leave to choose their next move.

Alice recommended that they return to camp to report on their findings, but they opted to storm the keep further, taking the bandits unawares. She allowed it, assuring them support to a point, but not enough to save them from any foolishness.

And so they delved into the dungeon, attacking from the an exposed upper-floor balcony. Faen infiltrated the keep, disabling a wizardess, then executing a number of guards. The party gained entry and took stock: the guards were largely drunk and/or asleep, and were as yet unaware of the situation outside.

They examined the wizardess, deciphering a missive she'd been writing to an unknown master, detailing the recent activities of Mhyr. The missive was written in Sailleen Karse, in which Taren is fluent. Amongst her belongings were found a spellbook, annotated in Karse script, and a cloak marking her as Al-Shem-Ayya, the Order of the Candle and Star. They take her prisoner.

After dispatching another group of guards, they proceed to the stairs upward, only to find an unassuming door that, inexplicably, is protected by overwhelmingly powerful magic. As they stop to study it, Taren dispatches Faen to scout up the stairs. He is stealthy, but not near enough, and is overcome before he can raise the alarm. The party continues unaware.

Scarlet tries her hand at the door, only to be rebuffed by its power. Before she or Theia can figure it out, a massive Memlukkar warrior descends the stairs, attacking quickly and without warning. He tries the party harshly with his incredible strength and fighting ability. Scarlet manages to contact Faen through a mystical link, rousting him and spying upon Myrh in the upper chamber. He is able to learn that Myrh is readying to abandon the keep, and has ordered another Memlukkar to assault the party. Faen returns to the fight, stealing a random staff from the wizard on the way down.

The second Memlukkar arrives, seemingly giving his ally an overwhelming advantage, only for Faen to neutralize him with a random blast from the staff he'd stolen. Luckily, he was able to activate it (with none in the party the wiser), and it took effect, shrinking the Memlukkar to the height of a small child. The battle went easier then, and after the first Memlukkar was slain, the second was felled without harm--save to his mind, having been disabled by the door's powerful magic. He was taken captive.

The party has no time to think, as Myrh soon appears, instantly raising walls of shadow to pen them in, then raising the fallen Memlukkar as an undead servant. The walls begin to close in, promising certain doom--until Faen, in a fit of impulse, grabs Scarlet and leaps from the nearest window, to at least a 40 foot fall onto rocky earth in a nighttime storm. The others are able, barely, to follow, before the walls would have cut them off. Between Scarlet's magic, Theia's dragon, and a chance-found Ring of Featherfalling, the party lands safely.

A quick conversation with the wizardess reveals that her name is Morag, and she was posing as an apprentice of Myrh in order to report on his activities to her masters in the Order. She explains that Myrh will soon be leaving, with his followers--and his undead servants--in tow. The party steals horses from the stables, and barely escapes as the bandits and undead pour forth from the keep.

They rejoin Alice and make camp in the husk of an abandoned temple to the Seven. All are able to recover from their ordeals, save the shrunken Memlukkar who dies when the magic wears off, care of a garrotte placed by Faen for just such an eventuality. By morning, they set off for camp.

They arrive in late afternoon, just in time to see no less than Rulenka Argard, Duchess of Orendras, departing from an apparent meeting with the Captain. They meet him next, and he gives no indication of his previous discussion. Instead, he demands a status update. They comply.

Reis seems highly motivated to confront Mhyr immediately; the Captain heeds his advice, dispatching him with as many men as needed. Reis chooses only the party, demanding they suit up and join him in fifteen minutes--barely time to change horses and grab their gear.

The party accompanies Reis back to Hawkstone Keep. Alice meets them along the way. There, they find the army of Jarl Myron Hillard shambling about, having been zombified.

Scarlet, Alice, and Reis assault the army (with the help of Alice's forest friends) while Theia, Taren, Faen, and Morag infiltrate the keep's lower levels. Theia performs a Sanctity Invocation on the ground beneath the keep, attuning herself to the Death Node tied to its threshold, thus denying the node's power to the necromancer.

With all of his minions vanquished, Myyr stands alone. The party, joined by Anna Ashen, searches for him, but he seems to have fled the keep.

Touching the weirwood door in the closed section of the keep, Taren enters the Memory Place of the elven people who lived here long ago. He learns that, in the early days of Hawkstone Keep, in the first century GC, the keep was built near a live Elder Tree, which they honored and kept sanct. In the shadow of the tree was an entrance to an elven burial ground, still occasionally used in the time after the founding of Oathkeep.

Back in the real world, he leads the party to the site of the tree, long since hewn down. They locate the entrance to the barrow and enter its long-forgotten tunnels. Therein, they find burial chambers and artifacts of hundreds of elvenkind, but the elves themselves are nowhere to be found. The deeper they delve, the more they feel the power of the death node.

At the bottom of the barrow, they find a surprising sight: the entire Elder Tree, nearly dead, but with its trunk intact, had been sunken into the earth, and somehow stirred to a semblance of life by a magical shaft of moonlight. Myyr awaited them, having taken command of the fallen elves. He did not seem interested in revealing his evil plot, but he did explain that he had kept his promise to Myron Hillard, who had hired him to raise an army of loyal soldiers--shortly before killing the Lord of the Silvershore. He then attacked the party.

In the ensuing battle, he revealed himself to be not a man after all, but a red dragon, Myyrdrazylkosh. Though ancient and powerful, he was unable to defeat the party, especially when they recruited the spirits of the fallen elves to their cause. The dragon was slain, the tree once more plunged into darkness, and the spirits returned to their rest within.

When the party emerged from the barrow, they found The Captain's army on site, along with Duchess Rulenka Argard and her knights. They gave a report, pronouncing the necromancer dead, along with the Jarl. The duchess merely said, "I'm going to need a new lord."

For their actions, the captain promoted the party to the rank of Decanus (the equivalent of a knight), with corresponding increases in salary, a legion-issued horse and squire, and additional privileges. With the promotion came new orders: to delve deep into Kurland, to retrieve the heir of House Hillard for the duchess.