One day passes to bring the horses back to Sukiskyn. Thora gives Tess info on the death of the ferry mistress - drowning. No signs of what caused the drowning. Thora tried scrying on Stephan twice, and it failed both times. A Sending worked (cast by a magic item) - Stephan has been captured by Goblins and is underground.
There are four more people in Sukiskyn. Gregory is their leader, they're from the Ilyakana lumber camp. They were attacked by Goblins. The Wolfskull and Redblade clans attacked, set fire to the palisade and broke in. This occurred the night before Sukiskyn was attacked. These guys ran away. Kalanos and his crew and Stephan were at the camp. Kalanos hid. Everyone else was killed or captured. Tess thinks it strange that the Goblins bothered to capture Humans.
The folks at Sukiskyn have a feast to celebrate their survival. They do their best to entertain Tess. Pyotr pretends to be happy, but is sad about the news of his brother. Tess does his best to be a good guest and tries to enjoy the entertainment.
There are two groups of Elves in the region. The Callari Elves are to the west - these are the ones that Tess wanted to talk to. The Vyvalian Elves are on the southeast side of the Dymrak forest - a long way from here.
Tess asks Pyotr and Gregory where there are caves that the Goblins might be holding the Humans underground: in the east there is a lake with an old ruin on an island in the middle. In the northeast is a Dwarvish and Gnomish mine. In the north northeast are tombs, and to the north are more caves.
Tess memorizes a teleport location in Sukiskyn. Then Tess and Taras head to Hokol - it has been destroyed and looted by Goblins. They head on to Ilyakana.
The Ilyakana lumber camp is still smouldering. There is a sunken river boat in the river next to it. Kalanos is wandering around in the open with a woodaxe. He is wild eyed and tells us to keep back. Kalanos looks bedraggled, unkempt and hungry. Tess tries to placate Kalanos to no avail - he's quite crazy. Tess casts Invisibility, then creeps up and knocks out Kalanos, taking the woodaxe from him. Tess them lifts Kalanos up and teleports him back to Sukiskyn, for them to take care of him. Tess then rejoins Taras via another teleport. There are scatted Goblin tracks through Ilyakana. The Goblins fully looted Ilyakana, taking tools and anything else that might be of use. Tess guesses that magic may have messed up Kalanos, though there were no signs of magic on Kalanos.
By dusk, Taras and Tessarael arrive at Sield. It also is burnt out, and appears to have been attacked before Ilyakana. They camp overnight there with Aldara on watch. They then head on to Cherkass, which also has been destroyed - around the same time as Ilyakana, maybe a little bit before. Tracks from Cherkass head east towards Segenyev. Tess and Taras follow those tracks and then lose them. The tracks were due east directly towards Segenyev. When they arrive at Segenyev in the mid-afternoon, they find it also has been destroyed and looted. Segenyev appears to have been attacked most recently - after Sukiskyn. Tess finds it strange that the Goblins traded with Fodorrl rather than killing her.
Tess and Taras then head on to the ruins at the lake, to see if Stephan is being held there. They camp overnight on the way there.
Tess and Taras arrive at the lake in the morning. The forest having given way to hills, amongst which the lake is. In the distance, on the lakeshore, are five Elves looking out towards the island. Nearby are the Elves' horses.
Tess sneaks up to listen to the Elves and finds out that they are discussing how to get "the statue" back. Taras hides further away. They don't want to go on the island. Something took the statue, but they don't mention what. The Elves appear to be traders. They have some masterwork equipment, and a silently cast Detect Magic determines that they also have some minor magic items.
Tess wanders out and says hello to the Elves. The leader of the Elvish traders is Goriidel. They are Vyalian Elves. Tess asks if they saw the Goblins, and Goriidel replies that the Goblins came through this area. The item the Elves are looking for is a very beautiful statue that they had traded for with the Gnomes and Dwarves in the north. Some Pixies stole the statue and took it to the island. However, as the island is taboo to their clan, they cannot go there to recover it.
Tess introduces Taras to the Elves - with whom they talk in bad Traladarian. Thyatian is also spoken in this region, but the locals (such as Taras from Sukiskyn) speak Traladarian.
The Elves say that the Pixies will happily steal you blind. There are about a dozen Pixies. Tess asks how they want him to negotiate with the Pixies, and the Elves give Tess 600gp in gems to negotiate with them - Tess can keep whatever is left over. Taras asks why the island is taboo to the Elves, but they're not sure. The Elves believe the island is haunted by some terrible creature - it's a bad place. For Tess' help in recovering the statue, the Elves will help Tess try to find the Humans that were kidnapped by the Goblins.
They work together to make a raft for Tess to cross to the island in the middle of the lake. Tess memorizes spells in the morning, then paddles over on the makeshift raft. Tess has a strange sensation as he steps ashore on the west side of the island, this seems to be a very bad place. There is a ruined structure in the distance. Tess decides to circle the ruins and investigate the small island. Tess feels more and more foreboding, that something is wrong, and Tess feels different ... After a while the foreboding feeling goes away, and Tess feels that the island is actually rather nice - Tess now feels cruel, unkind, and mercenary.
As Tess sneaks about the island, he spots six Pixies. They have set an ambush to kill Tess, and don't realise that he has see them with his Faerie Sight. Tess moves out of sight of the Pixies, casts Heroism silently on himself, and then follows up with a Fireball that fries all six Pixies. Tess happily goes over their fried corpses looking for loot. Each of the Pixies has a platinum neckband worth 50gp, Tess continues wandering around the island, but finds nothing else of significance.
Then Tess sneaks up towards the ruin. In the center of a clearing, the columns and roof of a white aged stone building stand, with a stone statue that appears to have fallen over with age and smashed in the center. In place of the stone statue, is the silver bronze statue that was stolen from the Elves. There is also an entrance to underground in the structure. Tess casts another Detect Magic, and detects Enchantment on himself and the island. As Tess is still highly cautious and concerned about the power that resides here, he decides to avoid investigating further for now.
Tess picks up the statue, then retreats back to the raft, which he takes back to the lakeshore. On the way back on the raft, Tess reverts back to normal, and shudders somewhat at the experience. The Elves are about a week away from their homes.
Tess asks if they have any skill in tracking, which they do. The Goblins in the area are the Viper Tribe, the Wolfskull Tribe, and the Redblade Tribe. The Elves indicate where the Goblin tribes are located approximately. The Redblade and Viper clans have caves. The Wolfskull clan probably don't have caves. Tess decides to head southwest to check on the remnants of the Viper clan, and then go and check on the Redblades, as if Stephan is being held underground he is probably at one of those locations.
It takes half a day by horse, with Tess on foot, to get to the Viper clan caves. There are no sign of the Goblins at the moment. There is a closed wooden door across the mouth of the cave, which is barred from the other side. Tess manages to flick up the bar from the side. On the other side of the door is a gigantic carving of a snake, with a spike in the bottom - it appears the carving was outside, but was brought inside for some reason.
Further inside is a barricade of rocks and rubbish, with Goblins on the other side. One of them throws a dagger at Tess, which Tess nimbly avoids. Tess asks in Goblin what happened to their clan - they say the tricksy Wolfskulls attacked them and hung their leader. The Vipers were planning to eat the horses they stole.
The Wolfskulls bullied the Vipers and the Redblades into attacking the Humans. This is strange for the Goblins. The Viper Goblins think that this was unwise, as the Humans will attack back. The Wolfskulls are powerful - they have many, many warriors (hundreds) and wolves as well, and they have spellcasters. Tess asks about the vampire bats - the Wolfskulls have special (trained?) bats. The Wolfskulls have been behaving strangely for a few weeks, having been bossing the Vipers around more than normal. The Wolfskulls live in a forest of dead (petrified) trees. The Vipers says that the Wolfskulls probably told the Redblades to kidnap the humans. The leader of the Wolfskulls is King Kloss. The Redblades number half as many as the Wolfskulls, and the Vipers are fewer still.
Tess asks for a map to the Wolfskulls area, and the Goblins draw a mishmash of trees with a river through the middle. The trees have all been dead a very long time. There are no plants or animals on the ground that are alive, they are all dead (petrified stone). Tess asks about the island, the Goblins know of it and say the ruins are dangerous. The Vipers say there are traps, rather no traps, none at all, in the Redblade's tunnels (it seems clear that they are lying).
Tess asks about the ferry mistress - the Goblins say that she fell in the water, having run away from the arrows. The bear got away.
Tess leaves the Goblins in peace, and goes back and talks to the others. The Wolfskulls are dangerous and aggressive according to the Elves, "We should not get too close." The group heads off to the Redblade area.
When the group gets to the Redblade area, they are surprised to find that there are no Goblins around outdoors. There is a large wooden door at the entrance of their caves, painted with a bloodied sword, and the smell of Goblins beyond that.
At the door, Tess hears what sounds like the rustle of a leather robe. Tess enters quietly and the chamber beyond the entranceway has two exits, and a dozen Stirges on the ceiling - the source of the rustling sound. Opening one of the other doors will most likely disturb the Stirges which will be noisy, so Tess decides to Fireball the Stirges anyway.
Tess finds that the caves of the Redblade clan are deserted, and indeed trapless after searching for traps carefully on his way through them. It was cleared out some time ago.
Tess does find a solid ironbound oak locked door. It looks like someone tried to hack with an axe at the lock, but failed to get through it. Tess checks for traps and then picks the lock without any problems. Inside are some hungry dire weasels. After conferring with the others, Tess lets out the dire weasels, managing to avoid trouble with them by leading them through to an area of the caves where he can lock them out of the way and then release them in due course. Inside the room where the weasels were is a large ornate tapestry of a Red Dragon (worth 120gp), five large terracotta jars filled with wine (worth 10gp in total - not worth the hassle of removing), a 1000gp ruby with Evocation magic on it (not a trap it appears), and a magically trapped (weak alteration - 3rd level) chest. Tess moves the ruby and later finds that the Evocation magic on it has left - perhaps it sent a message somewhere or something like that (?). Tess disables the trap on the chest and unlocks it. Inside the chest is 5050gp, a leather pouch with gems worth 350gp, a golden amulet worth 300gp, and a magic potion (not identified yet).
>From here the group heads to the Wolfskull tribe area, arriving near the end of the day. The last hour of travel is through a petrified forest, where everything, both trees and animals (e.g. a deer, a fox), is petrified. The petrifications appears to have occurred perhaps a century ago. There are recent signs of Wolfskull patrols.
It's fairly dark. They spot a patrol of 10 Goblins and 3 Dire Wolves. Tess Fireballs them, but it doesn't do that much damage. All except two of the remaining Goblins and all the Dire Wolves are taken down by arrows and another Fireball. The two Goblins are taken prisoner and interrogated. Some say that one of the Goblins, Vlack, has been actng bossy and telling King Kloss what to do. Vlack has Hobgoblins working for him, and has had them working for him for a while. However, recent events have been strange - the aim of attacking the Humans was supposedly to drive them away, yet they actually captured Humans. One Human woman is being held in the Wolfskull Clan dwellings; the other Humans were taken with Vlack on his bats. Tess carefully interrogates one of the Goblins, to disguise himself as the goblin in due course.
The others will wait nearby for Tess, ready to help if necessary. The Wolfskull lair is a large clump of petrified trees with a black muddy river on one side, and the lair is only accessible by a bridge across the river, on the lair side of which is a Goblin guardroom with torches. Tess heads across the bridge with Invisibility, but one of the Goblins spots Tess. Tess runs away, leading the Goblins away from the guardhouse, then kills the 6 Goblins and 2 Dire Wolves that followed.
Tess them disguises himself with Alter Self as the Goblin that he interrogated, and approaches the guardhouse, feigning a badly bruised head, and Tess points the wrong way for the Goblins to go and attack the Humans that attacked them. Tess is ordered to go in and get patched up. Inside there are chambers amongst the petrified trees, with ceilings made of petrified leaves. Tess randomly chooses the right door out of two exits, and is fortunate to immediately find where the woman is being held, with 8 Goblins keeping a look out. Tess surprises the Goblins and kills them, making some noise. Tess then frees the woman, quickly explaining that he is there to get her out in Traladarian, and teleports her out with him to where Taras and the Elves are waiting. They then high tail it away from the Wolfskull clan area.
The scrawny old woman is Babushka. Vlack apparently said she would only slow them down. Babushka was captured in Cherkass, along with a young girl who was taken away by Vlack. The five prisoners that Vlack captured are all Human. They were taken to a place call Xitaqa, which apparently is old ruins. The Goblins were lead by a "big Goblin" called Vlack - he didn't really look like a Goblin - perhaps he was a Hobgoblin. Vlack was as big as a Human. Babushka and the other Humans were asked about "the great map", which the Goblins wanted to find - they were very upset that the Humans didn't know where it was.
The Elvish merchants head off homewards with their statue. Tess, Taras and Babushka arrive back in Sukiskyn at the end of the next day. The two captured Goblins were released.
Tess enquires about the tapestries he saw in Sukiskyn at the feast, and asks about any maps they have. One of the tapestries has geometric patterns, and the other tapestry is of horses. Neither appears to be a map. The few maps the Sukiskyn inhabitants have don't appear to be of significance. No one knows where Xitaqa is. Kuzma suggests that the horseman (centaur?) on the moor might know - apparently sometimes he runs around as a black stallion. The horseman is not friendly with the Humans, as he doesn't like them trading in horses. The horseman can be summoned by whistling at midnight on the high moor for 3 nights running, while standing on one leg. To summon him, do this anywhere just east of Cherkass. Tess asks about Hobgoblins - normally they are not found around here - they are bigger and stronger than Goblins.
Tess heads to the moors near Cherkass on his own. He stands on one leg, whistling at midnight, feeling mildly foolish. On the second night a Centaur accompanied by 3 Warhorses gallops up to Tess. The Centaur says his name is Loshad. Loshad will tell Tess where Xitaqa is, if Tess kills two Werewolves that have been hunting horses. The names of the Werewolves are Bailakask and Kalkask (Bailakash is the mother of Kalkask). Four nights from now Tess must bring Loshad the heads of the Werewolves. Tess will do what he can, but he may take more than four days. Loshad says that's okay, Tess knows how to summon Loshad. Loshad is not a Centaur, he is a Chevall - a protector of horses. Loshad suggests attack the Werewolves when they are out hunting at night, as they will not be accompanied by all the Wolves of the wolf pack that they dwell with. The Werewolf lair is in a rocky outcropping by the Volaga River.
Tess goes back to Sukiskyn, where they melt down silver coins and the blacksmith makes a silver knife for Tess to use against the Werewolves.
Tess then heads up to the Werewolf lair, which takes a day. The lair is obvious on the rocky outcropping, and it is easy for Tess to nimbly climb up the cliffs. Tess follows the 8 wolves as they head out to hunt at night. The big grey one is distinctive as Loshad described Bailakask. Kalkask had no distinctive features that Loshad mentioned. Tess watches them hunt, then return to feed other wolves in the lair.
The next night when they head out to hunt, Tess buffs with silent Blur and Displacement spells and then casts Fireball, killing the wolves, leaving the two Werewolves. Tess heads in to attack as the Werewolves snarl at him. Tess takes Kalkask down after a couple of rounds, cleaving into his mother Bailakask. Bailakask is frustrated by repeatedly missing due to the Displacement, and Tess kills her in turn. Tess beheads them.
Tess then heads to the Werewolf lair. He uses Flaming Sphere to keep the wolves away as he searches through it. There are some horse skulls nailed inside to the wall, which Tess takes down. In a cleaner cave that has seen little use, Tess finds a jackal headed human statue at one end, but he has no idea of what significance the statue might have. Tess picks up the chest that is in one of the caves, and teleports down to Sukiskyn, leaving the remaining wolves alone.
It turns out that the chest was not trapped, and contains 500gp, an ornate jeweled necklace worth 2500gp, and gems worth 1500gp.
Tess heads from Sukiskyn by foot to see the Chevll. Two nights later Loshad appears. Loshad is grateful for Tess having taken down the horse skulls to return to Loshad, and for the deaths of the two Werewolves. Loshad doesn't know the significance of the jackal headed statue. The ruins of Xitaqa are near the wolf den, which is how Loshad knew where it is. Loshad doesn't know who originally built the tower at Xitaqa that is now a shattered ruin. Loshad has no idea what is at Xitaqa - no monsters that he knows of, but maybe some Hobgoblins. Loshad doesn't know anything about a map. Tess teleports back to Sukiskyn.