[[Session 20]] by [[Caelum]] We left Dzann's secret location having made some good progress to helping mum, two key scrolls. Now I need to find out more about the astral plane and how do i find her when I get there? Back in easthaven, we all decided we needed a break, pleic went on a holiday with some huskies, freida wanted to listen to some new group of bards she had heard good things about, rintario was locked in his room doing who knows what, probably reflecting on his life choices that left him as a tiefling, Phenrere wanted to try and find some spell components. My goal was clear, I needed to find out more about the Children here in my home that I had been so blind to before I started this journey. It was going well, they seemed to use Axel's home as a base, by using my new powers I even overheard them talking about planning a new sacrifice, unfortunately I'm not as sneaky as I'd hoped and I think I was spotted. I thought it might be worth getting out of sight for a bit so I went to see Imdra to see if she needed help with anything. Perfect timing, some gnolls had stolen a magic fishing hook and hunters had managed to track them to their hideout. I went to round up the group, Pleic and Frieda were still out of town. Rintario wasn't for leaving his room but did give us his amulet and crystal in case they came in handy. So that left just Phenrere who hadn't had much luck finding the gem she was after. We were joined by Latter, a halfling ranger and employee of easthaven who knew the location of the gnolls. It was going to be a couple of days there and back to the foothills of the spine of the world. The usual bland scenery, we travelled uneventfully until time to set up camp, on pausing the world felt wrong, tampered with, I detected magic influence in the area, rather than hang about we left the area before resting. Travelling on the next morning Phenrere noticed more birds than usual and spoke with them, someone had instructed them to search, not good news for us probably. Not long after the others spotted a group following us, we stopped and hid waiting to see. Frost druids with a crag cat, they spotted us, seemed mainly interested in Phenrere as a rival. We focused one of the druids down causing the other with his cat to flee. We'd all taken some hits and spent some time bandaging before moving on. We got to the Cackling Chasm, well named, a large crack in the earth, we were met with the sound of many hyena laughing echoing up the sides. Phenrere provided some lore on Gnolls, how they are demons born of hyena or some such. I had to give Lattar a pep talk after this insight or he may have fled. We tried sneaking into the cave entrance but either our noise or light alerted the four gnolls near the entrance. Luckily they werent aggressive immediately, they appeared malnourished. Speaking with them we discovered their leader was mistreating them, he had the fishing hook, they would happily standby and let us deal with him, as would others of their kind. Since no-one was here to throw a rock at them we made an uneasy bargain, we would kill the leader and they would eat him, we continued inside. The caves we simple, we found their leader in a small cave off the main chasm, I slowed him, Lattar kept him busy and Phenrere, our healer, destroyed him with holy fire. We got the hook and as we left his cave all the gnolls in the cave system rushed in to eat their leader. There must have been at least a dozen of them, all malnourished, all hungry, all demons born of hyena. We had kept our bargain. I cast fireball. Phenrere helped me mop up the few survivors. I wont lose sleep over that deceit. One other point of interest was a frost bitten Reghad in a cage, obviously mad, said he was formally of the bear tribe but now a servant of lady frost kiss. He had a weapon which had a strange tip, might have been chardalyn. We left him as we found him. Time to head back to town, wish I could say it was uneventful. A blizzard came in and caught us by surprise, we got separated, I came across a skeleton, standing in the snow, well buried from the waist down. Gave me a start but not an undead, just a skeleton. I used my magic to shout for the others, and that's when it happened. The skeleton was actually sitting, on a saddle, on a dragon, and I woke it. As Arveiaturace, the ancient white dragon, roused I flung myself to the side. I reached out and spoke to it in draconic, apologising for disturbing its rest. She must have sensed something for she asks who my parents are, then she gets enraged, speaking to her dead rider and saying her powers are being stolen! We flee returning to easthaven. It was hard to tell in the blizzard but she seemed to have a similar necklace to one one father left me, is this why my powers are growing and why so many of them seemed linked to dragons! Back in easthaven we are met by the sad news that Oarus has died by poison. Vernon is the new speaker, hopefully keep her busy and not be worrying about her son.