Closed campaign. Start new character for this campaign, only to be played in this campaign.

In a world with little essence a group of adventures were gathered together by Astar Judd. One of these adventurers was a warrior named David, this was his report:-

"I'm guessing you'll want a report of what happened. I'll tell you what I can, hopefully others will be able to fill in the rest.

"After one false start, which you may be aware of, we came to the woods which we had been directed to. Firstly, we encountered a number of goblins, agitated and wary, several of whom attacked our number and were cut down with little apparent concern from those involved. Finally, cooler heads prevailed for a few minutes and one goblin said that a number of other heavily armed people had come through recently and had been trying to force the goblins from their lands.

"We pressed on and encountered more goblins, this time both they and our more bloodthirsty elements seemed more willing to talk, and after some negotiation and the promise of aid to their wounded, we were permitted to proceed and talk to their chieftain. I am not certain of the nature of the negotiations which followed, as I was among the few who thought better of crowing around the chieftain of a very paranoid and armed group of goblins, but apparently the agreement was that we would be permitted to enter and hopefully rid the goblins of their attackers, and to seal the deal we were all asked to drink some 'mojo', which seemed to have differing effects on different people. I have a small sample of it with me, if it would be useful to investigate it's nature.

"We proceeded further, and encountered one dead humn, killed by goblins. Apparently he had attacked them. We further encountered some bandits who attacked the group, and were cut down. One who was not killed explained that he and his frieds were but bandits, and that they had seen a small number of other people pass by, humans and shadow elves. The knight of Asternia who's name escapes me made the decision to allow the bandit to go free as we were not able to take him for trial. He made the decision because no-one else would.

"As we passed further on, we encountered a number of strange obstacles and creatures along with a large number of soldiers, from one who was captured, they, or at least he seemed to be a mercenary who had little idea what it was he was guarding. I attempted to bring him to the Academy so you might get more answers from him, but he was too injured to walk, and I had to drop him during a major fight, and I didn't see who killed him.

"Aside from the soldiers and other strange creatures I'll get to in a moment, we also encountered another strange obstacle - ones which, for want of a better word, seemed to employ magic. In the first, there were three lines across the floor. One did not have any apparent effect, crossing the second caused any metal to become scaldingly hot, and the third threw anyone attempting to cross it backward with considerable force. There was a gem sighted, against a tree some short distance on the far side of the obstacle, and once this was shattered with a well-placed arrow, the effect subsided. The second such effect consisted of four rows of four narrow pillars of light across the path. Passing between these pillars yielded a different effect depending on which gap one passed through. None of the effects we encountered were especially detrimental, and one in fact felt to have lessened my injuries, but had we been attacked at the time, we would have had some trouble as several of our number had been struck temporarily blind or immobile.

"As for the strange creatures, I can't tell you as much as I'd like as I spent a large amount of the day hanging back to protect the two white-robed humans as their healing abilities were quite astounding but their combat prowess less so. The mercenary I interrogated spoke of four Essence-infused humans who, when he first saw them looked pretty much normal, but as time progressed became consumed by their respective element. We encountered a fire-imbued being, for one, which appeared to be made of fire. After a short time, it exploded in a massive pillar of flame and a number of floating weapons appeared, and assailed the group. They only stopped attacking once a gem carried by the being before it exploded was destroyed. A similar effect happened at another time, but I did not see what was happening around it. We also encountered 'shambling earth mounds' and a large metal creature composed of what looked like a mass of weapons fused together. Another encounter someone described as being with a Fire Elf, which left a glowing purple orb in its wake which exploded shortly after it was killed. Hopefully someone else will be better equipped to describe these five encounters.

"The final encounter, with a being imbued apparently with water, was the most dramatic and terrifying. The being was comprised of and surrounded by water, and it was difficult to approach it. Smaller portions of the water broke off the creature and were literally tearing people apart. At least three of our number were rent limb from limb by the creatures, including two of our three medics, left with their limbs and head scattered around the field. However they performed this horrific feat, once the central being was finally destroyed, its victims... recovered.

"One final piece of information which you will hopefully have already been passed is a letter discovered on the body of one of the guards of the final being. It spoke of efforts to create Essence-infused creatures, and something about the woodland in which we were travelling as being somehow special, as the beings absorbed Essence from the woods or in the woods more effectively.

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