Date: 2/23/05

XP Awarded: 1,100 (to 6th level characters)

Start: The wooded hills outside Silverymoon, three days before Midsummer

The first signs of the ‘Gem of the North’ are the Moonbridge, the gently glowing silver arc standing gracefully over the river Rauvin at a height of 60 feet, and the High Palace, it’s four soaring, gleaming white spires and crenellated battlements standing over the surrounding hills and woods. Lower, less magnificent towers of other buildings also rise from the thick, green canopy all over the area, competing with the soaring, dark green shadowtops.

The walls of Silverymoon are practically hidden among the surrounding woods and hills - the final approaches through the woods outside the wall are lined with riotous beds of white and purple wildflowers. At the gate, four knights in silver stand in silver breastplates and greet travelers, watched by a grey-bearded mage. Inside the gate spreads the Market, an area full of colorful tents and stalls, ringing with the cries of vendors and the bustle of commerce, surrounded by trees with many-pointed, gleaming blue leaves.

Turning from the Market down a wide, blueleaf-lined avenue, the bustle gives way to the gentle sounds of a harp being played by a silver-skinned elf on a curving stone staircase. The Silvaeren on the streets pause from their business to listen for a while, some briefly joining in song.

Far from the bustle of the Market sits the Golden Oak inn in the heart of Northbank. Across the street from a beautiful, four-story stone building clad in royal blue glass is a wide, low wooden building surrounding a massive oak tree whose branches are dotted with colored lanterns. The building’s outside is ringed with balconies full of windowboxes full of ferns and fragrant herbs. Inside, a cozy, rustic common room leads to an atrium dominated by the huge oak tree, ringing with the sounds of songbirds. Dim flagstone passages lead to private rooms and the dimly lit cellar taproom fragrant with cooking food and pipeweed.

Celowin takes the party out for a night of drinking and partying, starting in the Golden Oak’s taproom, and moving on to Helmer’s Wall. A former city gatehouse built of massive beams and rough stone walls, the alehouse has the best wine celler in the Silver Marches, and is a very popular with the students of the Conclave of Silverymoon. While relaxing over a bottle of fine wine from Tethyr, the adventurers take in the scene, enjoying several students who stand on their table to give high-minded pronouncements or pompous speeches. The worst speakers are pelted with thrown food and shouted down with jeers.

After stumbling back to the Golden Oak at a late hour (or early, depending on how you look at it), the next few days are spent re-equipping and searching for fine clothes for the approaching Midsummer festivities. Celowin turns over to Bremaeril the wood he was sent to get from Beorunna’s Well and spends some time catching up with old friends and taking care of business at the Conclave where he teaches. Bremaeril asks Celowin to help sway the merchants of Everlund to vote for accepting the city of Nesmé into the Silver Marches, but Celowin demurs, not wanting to involve the party in politics that deeply.

On Midsummer night, Iax shows up in a rhinestone-studded outfit that attracts a lot of attention from the crowds. Finely-dressed Silvaeren fill the streets, which are lit by many-colored globes of gentle light that slowly shift hue. It seems that every balcony and garden has a bard singing or strumming a harp, the soft strands of music complementing and melding together to create a peaceful background sound. Shaded bowers shelter amorous couples, oblivious to the outside world. Ahead, on a wide grassy rise, a larger group of musicians are playing beautiful dancing music, surrounded by gently moving couples. Vendors sell sweetmeats, finely-wrought glasses of wine, tall mugs of beer, and delicious cheeses and cooked meats.

Wandering the streets of the city, the party takes in the sights and sounds of the festivities, from bawdy to cultured. At one point, the group encounters Lady Alustriel’s entourage and even catch a glimpse and a smile from the High Lady herself. Later, Celowin takes his friends to an elven tree party in Silverymoon’s Southbank where they stay until after the sun starts to come up again.

The next evening, after recovering from the previous night, the party encounters Valerian at Helmer’s Wall, where he buys a fine bottle of elven wine from the forests of Chondath. He seems to be excited about something down in the High Forest, where he is bound.

The night after, the mysterious mage Lothirius invites the group to dinner at the Bright Blade Brandished, an alehouse with curtained booths overlooking the first floor commons. Over a lavish dinner of many local delicacies, he asks the party about their recent adventures and discusses recent events in the Silver Marches. At one point he asks the party about the Ring of Black Ice, an item the party hadn’t discussed with many people, and embarrassedly backpedals. Before leaving, he mentions that he has a divination he believes will be useful to the party soon - “the blackbirds watch over the raven’s roost.” As he leaves, Theodar takes him aside and warns him to ask the party if there is a task he has for them instead of maneuvering them like pawns in his game.

A few days pass. Theodar goes to the Vault of Sages to hire a sage to research the history of the cursed dwarven watchtower the party had found the priestess of Auril in. Fei also spends time at the Vault of Sages, researching the Ring of Black Ice mentioned by Shymra, the captured priestess of Auril. One night as he returns to the Golden Oak after a full day of research, as he passes down the Wallrun from the Market, a man staggers into him and presses a bloodied satchel into his hands. Before the man dies from the burns covering his body, he whispers ‘My duty is complete - they come for you…’ Moments later, Fei looks up to see a dusky-skinned sorceress pointing at him from the air above the Market. As she levels a heavy black wand with silver tips at him, she shouts “I have found him! This way!” and two more flying sorceresses appear in the distance. Wasting no time, Fei loses himself in the crowd and hides nearby. He hears the sorceresses casting spells nearby to get Silvaeren out of their way as they try to find Fei, but the cloaked mage stealthily leaves the area undetected.

Returning to the Golden Oak Inn, Fei tells his companions of what befell him, and shows them the contents of the satchel - a mysterious note, and several small silver charms that are powerfully magical. The note references a book that Fei overheard is being kept at the Vault of Sages, so the party readies itself for combat and sets out across the Moonbridge to warn the keepers of the book that someone is after it.

At the Vault of Sages, a sleepy-looking scholar opens the tall bronze doors to find a well-armed group of excited adventurers talking about someone stealing a book. Alarmed, he summons the Keeper of the Vault, a priest of Deneir named Deleron, who scowls, takes the intercepted note, and warns the party to return directly to their quarters and not speak of the matter to anyone. As the group slowly makes its way back across the Moonbridge, Deleron catches up with them on his way to the High Palace and gives another stern warning not to meddle. The adventurers take a roundabout way back to the Golden Oak and pass the area mentioned in the intercepted note as a meeting place. At one point, Celowin thinks he sees a shadowy figure on a rooftop, but no one else sees anything, and the adventurers turn in for the night.

The next morning, they are awakened by an armed contingent of the High Guard who have come to escort them to the High Palace.