User blog:SatyreyesDM/Off to See the Wizards

The Battle of Qualinost was over, but the fallout had scarcely begun. Joaquim fen Habbakuk retained power in the city pending the ascension of the Second Sun, but events brought out the xenophobes in the people of Qualinost, who began to look askance at Seth and his companions. Worse, an elven fireteam captured the eladrin wizard Nadire, whose presence in the city was politically explosive. Seth questioned Nadire, who claimed to have come to Qualinost seeking asylum from a murderous Taelthas the Twilit, but although her story seemed sound, he was uncertain of her honesty. He determined that he could use her in Adastra, but only if her power to planeshift could be safely contained until she was safely out of the forest and could not return to her people. Working at a frenetic pace with Lutesinger and Qualinesti arcanists -- with more than a minor assist from Akuma -- Seth devised an iron collar that would prevent Nadire from planeshifting, and enchanted it to make her believe that she couldn't remove it. This problem solved, he sent her to Adastra with a pair of elven druids, who he hoped could help the colony solve its food problems.

The next order of business was to find, at long last, the Tower of High Sorcery in Wayreth Forest, which moves throughout Qualinesti and settles where it will. According to the elves' scout reports, the forest was presently located in the untracked depths of Qualinesti, about a week to the northwest of Qualinost. Seth and his party set off confidently, but became lost almost immediately after stumbling upon a section of overgrown trail. Despite the elf scoutmaster Sorya's warning to stay on the path at all costs, Seth plunged ahead in hopes of finding the path again. Instead, he found the Wolf. The twenty-foot-tall creature found the party after they had spent just an hour bushwhacking, apparently drawn to Rilla while defending its territory. Thinking quickly under pressure imposed both by the Wolf and by the redcaps surrounding the party, Seth befriended the animal with Lutesinger's help and rode it to Wayreth Forest in admirable time. Perhaps Sorya was right after all when she suggested that Seth should follow his intuition if he became lost in the woods.

When they finally arrived at Wayreth, the party discovered it surrounded by a permeable barrier designed to prevent anyone from leaving. After polishing off a couple of grell who were notably outside their usual ecosystem, Seth and his friends held their breath, stepped through the barrier, and made their way towards the Tower of High Sorcery.