Loudwater - Winter Descends

Arriving back at Loudwater the following day, the party returned the children to a jubilant reception from the townsfolk. They sought out Curuvar for further information about their findings and learnt that Najara was a fabled kingdom of serpent people, to the south beyond the High Moor; Chelimber was an ancient massive castle - that dominated the territory between Najara and the elven kingdom of Evereska - long abandoned and presumed lost as the area had turned into vast swamplands.

The party spent a few days relaxing and re-equipping, before a reception the town had organised in their honour; just prior to the evening event, the Mayor asked them for a private interview.

She commented that outlying farmers and woodsfolk were noting unseasonal winter conditions being seen from the north; dropping temperatures, freak snow flurries and blizzards that come and go mysteriously, also sightings of furtive blue skinned creatures skulking in the woods. She was concerned that if winter is months early, the whole region will be threatened with famine, as the year's crops fail.

The Mayor advised checking a tower to the north, built 30 years ago by Draigdurroch, a dwarven warlock - it lay at the border of an area called the Dire Wood. It was an area 20 miles across surrounded by a ring of albino oak trees, with a ring of blackened petrified trees just behind. The interior of the wood was a hilly broken area, covered in both living and petrified trees, with a towering butte at its centre; she said Curuvar knew more about the matter.

Seeking Curuvar the following day, he explained that Draigdurroch went north to research the strange area that is the Dire Wood. Whatever he did, ended with his tower being encased in solid ice and no-one has heard from the warlock since; Curuvar seemed convinced that the area would hold clues to the worrying weather.