"Sounds like a decisions been made then.  Let's reset for now and gather our strength for later.  I am pretty tired at the moment." Rolen finds a safe, quiet corner to rest in for now.

Lipika smiled to Tildi, "I appreciate your assistance. Perhaps you can tell us what you know about the temple area, that information would be most helpful." She took a piece of paper and pen from her pack to take notes.  After, she too out her grandmother's letter and showed it to the light elves. "When the goblins attacked, my grandmother was involved in securing some of our treasured books in a hidden vault.  She left a description of the area, but I don't know what city it's in.  That part was lost.  Do any of the landmarks seem familiar to you?"

After talking a while with the elves, she'd take a long rest.

OOC: I'm not expecting anything on the letter.  It's part of her backstory, and if it plays into the game at some point that would be great, but it's not necessary

The Mountain Elves had several libraries.  They revered books and knowledge.  Books are bulky things, though, and no one is certain how much of their collections was saved.

Or perhaps, hidden away.

But the Elves here do know of libraries.  Mount Keru did not have one, as it was on the very edge of the kingdom.  The preferential locations for libraries was central, so that more Elves could travel there.

A place called Mount Merinine has the nearest one, and it is that one that matches Lipika's description.

But it is west of here, and it would take about two weeks to get there... or maybe more, if there is trouble in the way.

A second, longer expedition could reach it, but it is beyond the scope of this one.

**** **** **** ****

Tildi describes the temple area.  The good news:  it was built using a lot of clear building materials: glass, and magically created substances. That means there isn't much area in and around the building where dangerous things can hide.  Goblins hesitate to go there.  Apparently, Goblins, being native to craggy, subterranean places, are naturally somewhat agoraphobic.  They especially avoid it in the bright light of day, and the mountain top location gets a lot of light.

The bad news, there are some other dangers.  The normal regional pests that the Elves used to keep in check are no longer.. in check.  There are Griffons of several sorts, including small and cute ones and large and very dangerous ones.   There are beetles with silvery mirror like shells.  Those were brought here and unleashed by the enemies of Elves, because those mirror shells deflect many kinds of magic, including light based magic.

And  if that wasn't enough... the Goblins had allies, and these allies include the jungle Slug Folk.  The Slug Folk are far too soft and slow to match Elves in a battle, but they had magic of their own, including necromantic magic, and animated some skeletons of fallen Goblins.  The Goblins did not like this, but accepted it as they needed the help from the Slugs.

There are a few of those skeletons still up there.  The presence of Elves will cause them to rise.  The skeletons are totally unable to hurt the "Light Elves" but neither can the Light Elves do anything to them, although, the skeletons do react to their presence.

All this, the party learns while resting, recuperating, eating, and preparing for the next phase.

After poking around the building for a bit Nesterin found himself a comfortable place to rest. One close enough to the conversation to easily take it all in. He made mental note of several things during the discussion.

"Sounds like this temple will be an interesting exploration."

Lipika was delighted to hear what the elves know about the libraries, "Mount Merinine! I'm glad to narrow it down that much.  Now I have a destination!  Thank you so much!"

The description of hazards around the temple was sobering however. "I have magic that can be useful against griffons and skeletons, but I'm weak against creatures that are resistant to magic.  Is there an armory or somewhere I could get a bow?  We're still trained in bows as a back up weapon."

Rolen let the words of the others roll over him as he listened.  He continues to rest and recover his strength for the night to come....

Oda turned to Lipika.

"Here, try this?" Oda said as she offered Lipika her light crossbow.

"It is light and pretty simple to use." Oda continued as she held it out to Lipika.

"I don't think I like the sound of anything of this, mirror battles, slugmen and undead? But-I think it is time for the Mountain Elves to return to their homes. Surely the gods will favor us in the battles to come."

Lipika took the crossbow.  "Thank you, but isn't it going to leave you vulnerable?"

Oda smirks "I oft times find the Sacred Flame I can call upon to be more reliable than the my own aim. Its only temporary-I think I will be fine."

"Do not worry about the slugs up here," the young elf-glow tells Oda.  "They like warm and humid air.  They have an even harder time with the mountains than the Goblins do!"

Alas, the Elves remaining here in their odd condition have no armory they can open for the characters.  It was a time of war, and few weapons were left unused.  Those that were, the Goblins found long ago.  They didn't appreciate most of the things the Elves had made, but some found Elven weapons useful... and they could always be sold in marketplaces far away.

*** *** *** ***

One of the advantages of living... and adventuring... in the clear and open expanses of the  mountain tops is that things are visible from a great distance.  The glowing Elves dare not go outside in the daylight; they believe it would fade them to the point of no return, but the characters are under no such restriction.  It is a simple matter for the survivors to give the characters directions to a nearby place with a good view.

The Temple of Correlon occupies a high point, and its most obvious feature, easily visible from here, is the spire of glass rising into the air.  It is a few hundred yards away, and most of the way is a narrow paved mountain path with a scattered homes- Elves do not build dense, clustered cities and this is especially true of the Mountain Elves.  The path curves and winds through the mountain terrain, so perhaps "as the path goes" is longer than the direct, straight, birds flight distance.

Speaking of which... there are a few large eagles soaring around.  Normal, for daytime up here in the mountains.   They are not considered a threat, unless you are quite small.  Nothing else is visible in the mountain skies.

She smiled to Oda, "Thank you again, and not just for the crossbow, but for helping my people."

She said to the group, "I guess we should go ahead to the temple and make sure it's clear, then, hopefully, when it's dark enough, the people here can meet up with us there, and we can try to bring them back."

I'm assuming it's early afternoon after a long rest?

The party has rested, and it is early afternoon.

After having a long rest to recover his energy, Rolen gets up and gets ready to head out again.  "Any idea where this temple is located?"

Lipica summoned protective magic which shimmered about her as mage armor.  Turning to Rolen she offered, "I have a second spell, if you need it, I can give you mage armor."

In answer to Rolen's question she said, "the temple would be on the high point of the acropolis, and dominated by a tall spire, so we should probably go to the tallest spire we can see."

action: cast mage armor

Oda nodded in agreement about the temple's most likely location as she completed her mediations.

"Shall we be on our way?"

At Lipika's offer Rolen graciously replies, "If you can spare the magic then yes.  I would be honored to accept your assistance."  He then gathers up his gear and prepares to exit the building.  Replying to Oda he says, "Yes.  we should go before anything else crawls out of the woodwork.  Let's find this temple and see what we can find."

Rolen makes his way outside into the street and begins searching for the temple.  He sends his owl familiar aloft to start a search pattern to find it and any other threats.

She clutched her crystal with one hand while making an arcane symbol with the other, and speaking the incantation.  She touched Rolen on the shoulder, and similar shimmer to her own magic covered him.  Then she followed him out.

When he sent his owl to scout she warned, "I wouldn't let him fly too high, and keep to covered areas.  The eagles might see him as prey."

Action: cast mage armor on Rolen

The nice thing about the mountain territory is that its fairly hard to be caught by surprise by things.  There are very long views.  Every now and then, a fold in terrain conceals something, and there are outcroppings where things might hide, but otherwise you can see for miles.

The ground is rarely even, though.  Most of it is slope, and the slope is often loose soil and gravel, or very weathered, cracked stone.

To make like easier, the Elves created paths.  Not as wide as the roads in Human or Dwarven cities, as they had no wheeled vehicles to move around, they are typically 6 feet across, and paved with flat stone or gravel.  Sometimes they are wider and quite elegantly paved with cut, shaped stone, especially on the approaches to very important places.  The paths have stone stairs frequently, but otherwise the Elves tried to keep them fairly level, following the natural contours of the land.

One of the larger paths is the one leading to the temple of Correlon, which is in view as a tall glassy spire with a round base.  The trail allows a wonderful view of the lowlands off to the north and east- you are above the tree line here but down there is thick jungle.  The Mountain Elf kingdom, in many ways, was like a chain of islands rising from a green sea.

The path you are on comes to an end about fifty feet ahead, with a curved terrace seating area extending over mountainside to one side, and stairs rising towards the temple in the other.  While there are no trees, there is scruffy, tough mountain vegetation, and around the seating area, the surviving remnants of ornamental plants.  A few bright purple and blue flowers remain.  This was a social place once, Elves could pause here before going up the last set of stairs to the temple.

The ground becomes rockier higher up, although there are many patches of loose rock and gravel.

From the path, even before you get to the seating area, you can see that at the top of the stairs, there is a plateau terrace in front of the temple.  The stairs don't lead straight to the doors.

From somewhere, you hear the sound of stones being dislodged and sliding across across other stones.  Not boulders, stones- like someone kicked a few down the mountain. But it didn't come from nearby.

Nesterin had quietly gathered his gear and made ready, so when the time came he was not delaying the group. He spent a lot of the walk taking in the sight of it all. The mountain elves buildings and trails were different than those of his woodland homeland, but if one looked close there were similarities also.

At the sound of the stones he paused and looked around. "Hopefully it was just local wildlife." Though as he continued he kept an eye out for any possible traps or ambushes.

Oda closed her eyes for a moment and prayed that she be gifted with the silence of the wind as she crept forward with the rest of the group.


Guidance.

Lipika looked about as they walked the paths, partly to watch out for danger, but she was also taken in by the view.  She tried to stick to the paving stones where she could, fearing the loose gravel might make to much noise.  It was on a gravel patch when she heard the falling stones, she stopped dead in her tracks, and looked to the others.  She nodded at Nesterin's suggestion, and continued on cautiously.

"One can always hope." As Rolen replies to Nesterin he reaches out to his owl to check if it's spotted whatever caused the noise....

Suddenly, from out of nowhere, an encounter map appears!

For hungry creatures of the high mountain area, food tends to be very dispersed.  Sitting around waiting for it to come to you is useless.  The best way to catch it is to take to the air, and so the mountains are home to a variety of Griffons.

Some creatures have other strategies, especially since the sky is the province of Griffons.

The burrowing beetles tunnel, and poke eyestalks and antennae above the ground.  They watch for Griffons, but they also feel in the ground for the vibrations of passing animals.

When something pokes their interest, they emerge.

These creatures aren't known to the Elves, though.  In their time, giant beetles were not present here.  Nevertheless, there are a couple of them now, and they have detected the party and have crawled up out of their burrows.  They begin a purposeful march over the rocky terrain.  They are easy to see, their shells are very shiny and practically glitter in the bright sunshine.

Terrain shading is to indicate elevation, darkest is lowest.
 
This message was last edited by the GM at 00:53, Thu 27 May 2021.

Lipika saw the beetles and thought back to her natural philosophy studies at the university.  Insects weren't a subject of primary interest for her, but she tried to remember what the professor said.  Were these dangerous animals? and how was it best to deal with them?

16:22, Today: Lipika rolled 22 using 1d20+5.  nature.

As he rests at the sitting area near the temple Rolen notices the two beetles moving this way.  With a frown on his face Rolen moves up the stairs towards the main temple door.  He has his owl continue searching for other threats in the area...

Rolen moves to J21; towards the temple main doors.  He readies his magic if the beetles get any closer.  Currently, his spells are out of range.