Sanctuary

After much discussion on what to do next and where to take the town, the party opts to head towards the Strong Bite Gnoll clan to deal with the raids on travelers and the town. We gather a few food gifts, namely deer, and head off. After several hours of travel, we come across a sleeping bear. Orion votes to kill the bear in its sleep and bring the corpse as another gift. The party overall decides against it and continues on.

We arrive at the gnoll den and are greeted by two guarding gnolls. Taron tells the gnolls they wish to speak to the leader. They laugh at us. It is not a friendly laugh. They take us into the den.

Inside the den, the party crosses over a spike pit trap. The two guard gnolls stay back. There are three gnolls on this new side as well. Two are large enough to lead their own tribes. The third gnoll is an extremely large creature gnawing on a human-sized femur. Terran attempts to converse with the largest gnoll. He laughs at Terran's attempts, explaining that it's too late to help him from zombies to the north. He engages in combat. [Several combat rounds, a crit failure on reposition checks by the gnolls, and several crits by the party later the gnolls are all defeated except one who submits].

We announce the surviving gnoll BiteBite as the new leader of the Tribe. He renames it to True Sons. He tells us that BigChest Strongbite came from the north and conquered the tribes in the area. BiteBite is from the current den, so he can't provide more information than that. We give BiteBite the Gnoll Tooth Necklace and take the rest of the loot. BiteBite also shows us the food stores, where the party takes the (several) human remains from the stores for proper burial, among them are the bodies of K, C, and B? Lawrence notices that one of the non-previously mentioned corpses contains a letter stating “a shipment is ready for pickup”. Orion fails identification of the very damaged seal.

The Gnolls return after 1 week. We dub them, the Laughing Bones gnoll tribe. The party asks them several questions, one of them being about any zombie sightings. They state they saw 2 more zombies. …Stuff Happens..

We prep to set out for the Dukedom of Aeria controlled by Duke Lorenzo, who has been on a genocidal crusade against of monsters throughout his territory after an ambush(of minotaurs?) killed his husband. However, it is noted that although there is a marked decrease in monster sightings, the number of disappearances has not decreased notably and/or remain high.

11 days of downtime

Downtime activities end, resulting in Ayin finding 3 guards(2 fighters, 1 sorcerer, each level 2)Arjuna, Krandell, Thully for a monthly price of 6 gold a month. This outdoes our monthly surplus of 4 gold.

The King's architect shows up. His name is Raul. He does not care for the town and is only here because of the orders given by the king to prepare. He believes there is a lot of work to do before the ceremony. He sends Timmy back to Red Castle for more supplies as Raul begins construction.

The Party begins its journey to the Dukedom of Aeria. Before we leave, Taron gives us a harrow reading. Of minor notes: Orion's fate was deemed unreadable(and his fate cannot be read until the 21st of Estu) and several dark cards were drawn. The Party heads east towards the the Dukedom of Aeria]. There are storm clouds on the horizon. The evening of the 21st passes without incident. ==22nd of Clarent== It rains all day. Everyone is moderately unhappy and a few of the party are dragged down by the dour weather and fatigued, but otherwise the day passes without incident. The evening arrives. [[Taron takes first watch where he spies a shambling zombie. He does not engage the creature, but does make note of it. Sees-Nails and Zara's shifts pass without incident.

We arrive at the juncture between the grasslands in front of the mountains and the beginning of the mountains themselves where we spy a mostly empty inn by the appropriate name of Foothill Inn. There are two individuals inside a female Dwarven named Miss Stone and a human male named Buster. Miss Stone offers 5 rooms for 2 silver a piece and throws in some oiled cloth for tent making. The Party accepts and begins preparations for the night. Miss Stone leaves to make dinner and Buster attempts to convince us to convince Miss Stone to sell the Inn to him so she can flee to safety from the zombies. As we inquire about him and his desires, Buster leaves quickly to make the rooms up and disappears for some time. We remain unconvinced and his actions are deemed suspicious.

While waiting for dinner, Ayin and Sees-Nails discover a large chunk of unrefined primal obsidian behind the bar. Miss Stone reveals that the inn itself was built on a short-lived primal obsidian mine. So short-lived that the mine quickly died, but the through traffic meant the inn could stay open. The party asks to investigate the mine, to soothe their minds about zombies. Miss Stone obliges and shows the party where the mine entrance was. It was truly small and dug out with old techniques. However, Orion notes that one of the branches was mined more recently and (someone) spots more recently mined primal obsidian. There are also clear signs of recent foot traffic by a humanoid. Sees-nails begins to hunt the footprints. We relay this information to Miss Stone, that there may still be primal obsidian in the mine and that Buster seems suspicious. Not long after, we find Buster wearing what appears to be a zombie mask spreading some sort of powder. We think it will summon zombies.

We attack Buster. Two strong zombies help him. They actually take a bit of work to put down. Orion identifies the powder Buster possessed as a dried humanoid powder, which is a less than savory substance used to summon zombies. Orion also identifies the strong zombies as a wither which is a more advanced, complex zombie than a basic mindless drone. We interrogate Buster and determine he wants the Mine and the Inn above. Buster resists in telling us where he obtained the dried humanoid powder. We finally (Bianca, Taron, Orion) intimidate Buster into revealing his source. The description he gives loosely matches Duke Lorenzo. Buster was given the dried humanoid powder and told to sprinkle it on wagons he saw. He also received a pouch of gold. We clean the powder up and destroy the remaining amount.

The mountains are more dangerous than the road to the Inn. Sees-Nails and Taron don't see anything on their watch shift. However, Thalacos sees two shadow men-like figures squatting at the far end of our camp. They eventually call out to Thalacos and warn him of keeping fires, that it's dangerous in these parts. After Thalacos wakes the party, Taron asks who they are. One answers that he is Doran. He looks like a minotaur. He describes himself as a scout and ranger for a cave of other minotaurs. Doran describes of a pack of zombies capturing and killing humans, which makes the life of the minotaurs difficult. After a few more words, the two minotaurs leave.

It is a torrential rain. Travel is difficult. Only Bianca and Sees-Nails take a shift. Their keen eyes spy a man wearing a hood, walking bravely through the night. Minutes later, ten powerful looking zombies stumble in the same direction as the hood-wearing man. The party opts to not engage the horde of zombies.

We continue traveling, otherwise nothing of note occurs.

As we continue traveling, we come across two powerful looking, zombified trolls. We attack them, but it consumes a significant amount of our daily resources.

We arrive and enter the town of Aria. We head to the Gateside Inn. Their clientele is a bit wealthier than expected. We ask the manager about rooms and she tells us that the room prices are 45 silver a night or 2 copper for a bed in the cellar. The inn is quite busy because people are gathering for Duke Lorenzo's birthday. Before we can pay for a room, we are informed that there is already a room for us, room 22. We go there where we meet a Miss Maeny(I don't think this is right but I can't read my hand writing). Piper is also in the room, relaxing on the bed. Piper informs us that our objective at the party we are attending is to acquire a Harrow Card, held most likely by Duke Lorenzo. We are informed that it is The Crow, a card related to powerful necromancy magicks.

We are further informed that we will be attending as Piper]'s servants and we need to learn the ways of grace. There is a multiday training montage. ===1st of Estu== [[Orion buys and learns invisible item

We fail our training on our task

Taron and Orion ask around about zombies. They learn from a drunk that a catfolk was leading the zombies away.

The party prepares for the party by loading up Orion's bag of spacious holding We head in, bypassing the security and seeing Piper off before heading to our real objective, find The Crow. We sneak around until a zombified troll intercepts us. We defeat it and kick the body into the lake. As we traverse the castle, we wind up in a slightly unused bedroom. There are several fancy outfits. We find Duke Lorenzo's journal(see google doc) and an oddly shaped keyhole. We continue our search, stumbling across a room containing two zombies holding down a giant piece of paper. We defeat the zombies and discover the paper contained a draft of an unfinished ritual that would disenchant and resurrect a target(see duke lorenzo's journal). There is also a key shaped for a specific keyhole. Other loot is: a scroll of fly, magical supplies.

We take the key, unlock the door and travel down a path to a rickety elevator. It takes a long time to descend downwards before rushing the last few feet. The room is dark, save for Ayin's crown, which reveals two skeleton knights crackling with electricity.

We defeat the skeleton knights, later discovered to be grave knights. The room contains several cells and appears to be a prison-dungeon. There is a single individual in there, a pale and bald man named Big Leo. He tells us that he and some others were escorting someone named Screed of the Citrine Light before they were waylayed by zombies. He is the last remaining survivor of the travel group. He informs us that all the other individuals in the travel group were experimented on and eventually either turned into grave knights or something else.

We tell Big Leo we will let him out after we find the key. Del listens at a door deeper in the prison and hears a low, pained groan. We open the door. There is a monster! It is some horrific beast surgically combined of several body parts from different people. It is currently chained down, where it loosely and weakly tugs on the chains. We fight the beast, wherein Orion recalls it is a Necrohusk, a failed attempt at more complex and advanced monsters, best used for their brute strength and short lives. We slay the creature.

In the silence, we hear dripping water and investigate. We discover the emergency hatch out of the prison and warn all of us to not open it. There are also some foliossee google doc in the room, containing information. There is also a box containing a letter to Screed from the Headmaster Sarapos(spelling). There are a few other items inside the box.

Orion sketches the half finished ritual and begins pondering its completion. We change into the fancy clothes and prepare to storm the birthday party as fancy nobles and stop Duke Lorenzo. We are introduced to the party with our names. We notice Piper speaking to Duke Lorenzo. Lawrence fires a shot at a funny, dancing skeleton on the party walls and Taron announces our plan to defeat Duke Lorenzo. Duke Lorenzo wastes no time and orders his servants to kill the guests inside the party. During the commotion of fleeing guests and advancing skeletons, Duke Lorenzo turns vaporous and begins to flee. The party defeats the skeletons, suffering no deaths thanks to a well-timed heal by Orion.

We begin chasing Duke Lorenzo. His vapor form makes it difficult to defeat him and he almost escapes off a balcony and over the water before Sees-Nails uses a scrap of cloth given to him by The Weaver to summon the strange fae for a favor due. The Weaver catches Duke Lorenzo and returns him to us in a special sack of the stars. Duke Lorenzo pleads for his life, explaining his actions and needs. He offers gold and information to the party in exchange for life and support in saving his husband, Italo. Italo died via monster attack, but The Harrow Gang revived him using The Crows and ordered Italo to raise an army of dead able to be controlled by The Harrow Gang members. Duke Lorenzo will teach Orion his ritual of undead. Taron attempts to get more information about The Crows from Duke Lorenzo, but the Duke resists, loving his husband too much to sacrifice him.

Bianca offers an out for them by offering to be adopted. This will give the Duke an heir and allow the two to retire into old age with each other, once the ritual is complete and the deed done. Duke Lorenzo accepts.

Something about snakebites, waxworks warehouse. Dockside gang, Basaii. I was drunk and failing to take decent notes by this point.

4th of Estu–Continued (Missed these two minutes) [The Rabbit Prince] is freeing slaves from mining colonies in Truscia, mostly of the [Free Seas Mining Company] and this is causing a shortage of primal obsidian in the Truscian mainland. The party deals with Lorenzo and discusses how to resolve the conumdrum of Italo. Lorenzo creates a ring of warding against the zombies that he created, for us. This will protect us from the zombies natural roaming. Lorenzo and Italo will go to the 1st World for hiding, but not the main city.

We discuss where to go next. We decide to go to Bassaria and stop at the rumored Sarenae temple en route. It will take week to head straight to Bassaria and only 2 more days to head to the temple of Sarenae.

We do downtime, there is crafting and resting.

We head to the temple of Sarenae. It takes two days. As we begin climbing the mountains to the temple location, the air grows thin. We see a few zombies, but they do not bother us thanks to the ring.

The air grows very thin. Lawrence, Orion, and Thalacos begin struggling due to the thin air. Everyone else is ok. Lawrence and Thalacos recover and grow more used to the air, but Orion continues struggling.

Hours later, the party arrives at the temple. It is a small complex that is lush with plants. There is also little decay in the area. Orion and Ayin]] discover there is a form of preservation magic centered on the stain glass window in the main cathedral building. There are no animals or insects in the area, it appears the zone is above the tree line.

Bianca searches and speaks to a flower that says its name is Flora. Flora says there are no visitors or haven't been in years. It does say that the it felt the wing beats of a large creature.

Del and Taron patrols the perimeter and Del spies a a large, black metal plate. He rushes over and examines it. Del and Taron determine that it is likely the scale of a dragon. They finish their patrol and inform the party of their discovery.

Bianca interrogates Flora about the dragon. The wing beats appear from east to west or west to east. It is not common, but it has happened multiple times in its 45 year life. We determine that it may be a Conspirator Dragon. It hurts Sees-Nails is lightly injured when investigating the scale's age.

We enter the cathedral. The room is cast in an orange light from the stained-glass window. The outer edges are not within the preservation spell and are crumbling a bit. There are several paintings of Sarenae, 6 in fact.

Taron notes that the cathedral is above the tree line. Orion theorizes that maybe the cathedral was moved there somehow, perhaps by magic. Bianca posits that maybe the explosion from the Truscian super fortress causes magical mayhem, bringing it here.

The paintings are 1. 2. 3 and 4 are unreadable. 5 is the Prismatic Ray bestowing honors upon 7 knights. Painting 6 is the same 7 knights in a star pattern. There are holes for 7 gems. The gems are missing.

We spy a locked door with a symbol of Sarenae. Thalacos states that it is a holy room and requires a process to open. We search for some holy oil, but find none. We theorize that lighting Thalacos on fire will allow him to pass through. Orion obliges and sets Thalacos on fire. Thalacos walks through the now open door. It begins shutting, but Del intercepts the door and the party keeps the door open. The room is for preparing holy warriors to fight evil. Inside we find a glass vial containing a shining substance. We determine it is a vial of Greater Dawnlight. We find a scimit with a flowery version of 'Strike down those who would not repent'.

Thalacos takes the items and there is a long argument with Orion over studying the items and stained glass window. Thalacos forbids studying them, fearing the destruction of the holy artifacts.

We travel after fighting an elemental. We arrive on the border of Remia, a caravan nation where the (something uita?) move every five years. There are games that determine where the (uita?) go. We are on the Southern route. We enter a tent shop containing General Goods. We see a man in black, The Black Wolf. He is balancing a sword poorly. There is a poster asking for help slaying a goose.

Bau Gresh is asking for help. Orion announces that people of Remia put the caravan name first, so we are in the Bau caravan. The Black Wolf attempts to dissuade us from fighting the goose.

We fight the goose. It is not a normal goose, but a fae goose hydra!. We note that it is odd to see a creature such as this out in Sanctuary. We note that it can grow as large as a house. We slay the beast.

The Black Wolf makes a surprise showing, claiming “he had it right where he wanted” and that we took his kill. We gather the goose eggs and return to Bau Gresh. He signs the power saying we receive “5 points”. We find out we need to join the Hunter's Association. Gresh informs us about the Hunters feast in Bassari

There is a time skip 19th of Estu - Nothing much happens

Someone hears a knock on a door. There is a note for Taron. “Let these not (something)Do not stray something with the Throne Card”

During the evening, there are some riled up wolves and a single lit up candle in the distance. We do not pursue or investigate

The flare/fire/candle moves a little closer. It is shaped into a creepy crescent smile.

During the day, we meet a traveling merchant. He regales us with a story of a very skinned wolf. The merchant's name is Traveling Merchant Bart. He also says that the Docksiders] opened a new chapter in [[Port Friendship. Bart notes that the Docksiders are taking protection money and he paid to be safe. We will see Rab of Hunter's Association in Fort Cain in Port Friendship. During the evening, the howling wolves go quiet quite suddenly. The candle also swaps side to be ahead of us instead of off into the distance/behind us.

There is a fight. We fight some witch warg's aka the wolves. We note that they do not usually come in black or stand our. It is quite odd.

We fight the witch wargs. One is a big black warg. Their faces are stuck in a neutral expression, which is odd. The black warg speaks telepathically to Bianca “Child of night, this is not your fight”. It repeats a similar message to Lawrence. Orion reads the black warg's mind. It is giving a command to the other wolves/wargs to attack Taron. The black is looking ragged and like it is partially constructed from some material.

We defeat the black wolve and a Jack O' Lantern appears. It is a fae in hiding. Someone or something summoned this fae to attack us. They are not used by the Queen of Mushrooms because they are not loyal. It likely killed and flayed the wolf to hide in its skin. Ayin's dragon, Bella slays the Jack O' Lantern, leaving behind the pumpking and a thorny hand wraps of might blows. Taron does a harrow card reading for the party. The first 3 cards that popped up were Wax Works, Snakebite, and Eclipse. Taron then draws Empty Throne, Courtesan, and Eclipse. He notes that this is highly portentous and unusual because there were two Eclipses.

Nothing of note happens

We arrive at in a town called Carksville. Our first stop is a place called The Magical Brewery. It currently appears closed. We speak to a gnome outside called Mr. H. He owns the brewery and has informed us that his last batch of brew became sentient and has taken over and shut the place down. MrH offers us a keg of the brew to save his brewery. He definitely wants us to save some documents he has stored inside, even if the brewery is destroyed.

Orion cats invisibility on Sees-Nails who then proceeds to sneak into the brewery. Sees-Nails spies 3 amber colored elementals and some icicle snake. Sees-Nails finds the documents and investigates a closed bedroom door. He sees a stuffed animal being eaten by the/an icicle snake. He steals it and hides it. Orion puts the documents and stuffed animals into a spacious pouch/bag of holding. These elements are called Inking Waterfalls. They are usually guards to the Water Plane. There is a fight. We win. We note that the brewing tanks are smashed in, purposefully destroyed. We investigate the last room in the brewery and note that this specific tank is damage as if something had burst out from the inside. There is also a bag of Cold Comfort Lesser.

We name our group the Lords of Valcastle. We convince Mr. H to name a bear after us. He informs us that his beer is highly qualified, drunk by the King of Alabaster. He pays us 200g and gives us a barrel of Firework Fest. It has an acidic finish. We head out of the town after convincing Mr. H to have the magical effect of our beer be a short warp step.

There is 5 days of travel

Nothing of note happens

Nothing of note happens

Nothing of note happens

Nothing of note happens

We arrive at Port Friendship. Gangers have moved into town and setup a protection racket. We visit The Church of Sarenae where Sorin and Zay inform us of the conditions of the town. Jet leads the Docksiders gang. The gang is based in Bassari, but this is a new chapter here.

The Upstanding Gentlemen are corrupt guards that patrol the upper parts of Bassari. Taron, Lawrence(and someone else) head to the town hall to ask questions there. The townhall appears healthy and relatively intact, compared to the rest of the town. We enter in and there is a dwarven woman Alda who runs to Bassari to deliver messages to and from the town, since the governor operates out of there and does not come to Port Friendship. Alda says that Bassari can't send resource to Port Friendship to deal with the gangs rising up. We determine that there appears to be at least 16+ members of the Docksiders gang in town.

Thalacos writes out a concern that the Lords of Valcastle will deal with the gang in exchange for rewards. We head to a bar where the gang hangs out. The party discusses for a while and decides they will kill Jet. There is a fight, we win it. Orion grabs a Soothing Tottie. We find a trap door and advance down the bar, spying two crocodiles.

We defeat the crocodiles and gang members under the bar. Sees-Nails opens a chest and we gather loot.

Nothing of note

Nothing of note

Nothing of note

The courier we sent to Bassari returns with a letter signed by the Governor of Bassari taking note of our concerns. Nothing will be done by the governor. There is a newspaper that indicates that a vote by the Thousand Sword Alliance to stabilize Truscia. It fails.

Nothing of note

Nothing of note

We arrive in Bassari. It is known that it possesses 2 gangs in the town, the Docksiders and the Upstanding Gentlemen. We enter the city during the day before the Festival of Shelyn. We enter into the town through the poor district entrance. As we enter, we see a guard with a red bandana demand 2 gold from an old man. We surmise the guard is a member of the Upstanding Gentlemen. We say the old man is a part of our group and bully our way in. Bianca questions the old man about a burned down halfway house. He warns us off from investigating the halfway house before parting ways with us. Our first sight in the town is a huge inn named The Keyhouse 1. It is a 4 story building that Del and/or Ayin say is neutral territory for the criminal activity in the town. We note that there are 3 'Keyhouses'. We enter into the inn and split a room. Biance asks Miss Key about the halfway house that burned down. Miss Key tells Bianca to go to the Church of the Radian Prism. As we get close to the church, a half-orc named Osol is building a stage theater.

As we enter the church, someone with a meek voice says “Lauali”? Bianca has a very strong reaction. The meek voiced woman starts crying. Bianca encourages her to keep talking. The woman eventually recounts the harrowing story of the fire that burned down the halfway house down. The woman identifies a specific wereshark. This information points the Docksiders gang sending a message out to people. We leave the church and head to the burned down ruins of the halfway house. There is a sign out front that says “Sarenae Halfway House. No one leaves”. Taren suggests that the Waxwork card is working with the Docksiders gang.

We meander about the halfway house and surrounding area for a bit. We stumble onto 4 shady characters who opt to go their separate ways quickly. Taron catches one of the shady individuals. He strikes up a conversation with the individual in question. Taron says the part just wants to ask about the halfway house. The individual says the part should prepare for a fight in that case. The man turns to leave, suddenly no longer interested in the conversation. Del throws some water on his head. He turns and Sees-Nails pickpockets the man. The man punches Del in the jaw. Sees-Nails pickpocketed Demon Dust off the man.

At the halfway house, a nice, friendly person told us that to leave.

There is a fight. 4 gang members attack us. We kill 3 of them.

Bianca takes a javelin and stabs one of the corpses and runs it and the sign through the corpse. The surviving gang member describes a bit of how the Docksiders work. Sees-Nails takes a finger from the surviving member. Eventually enforcers show up on Harbor Street

We go off to gather more information. Ayin tries to buy some drugs from a gang member. He succeeds. There is a fight. Sees-Nails gains another finger from a person. We interrogate the survivor of the fight. He describes how the important members go into the water in Bassari near the lighthouse on the peninsula. The survivor describes a guard dog protecting the suspected underwater base.

We pick up some potions of waterbreathing. We also rent someone's boat and head out to the peninsula lighthouse. We get there and we get attacked by a large shark. We kill the megalodon.

We enter the underwater base and easily defeat some low level workers. We continue onwards. We open a door to reveal a bunch of primal obsidian tools used for manufacturing Shiver and primal obsidian. We see some more dockworkers and a werebat. We leave them be and sneak/advance to a door with some religious runes on them. We can't understand the runes. We press onwards. Sees-Nails attempts to open the door, but as the door clicks open, the werebat notices the door handle moving and comes to investigate.

We must fight the works and bat. We do and open the rune covered door.

Orion realizes that these are holy runes for binding and trapping evil beings. We see a summoning circle in the middle of the room. There is an erinys devil in the room, petting on one of a set of manticores. The devil name is Uranieth who was summoned and trapped to summon for the Great White Shark. Uranieth recognized the black dragon scale we picked up at the broken down temple. She reveals that someone like Orion was interested in the blood of the dragon. Uranieth revealed that a slick-backed haired man traded a scroll of Loose Time's Arrow. Ayin asked what the blood of the dragon was for. Uranieth wants to conquer the domain/plane she was summoned from and since blood has power, the blood of a dragon would have lots of power. We decide that we will let her out of the summoning trap on a few conditions. She would hand over the scroll of Loose Time's Arrow. She makes a mistake and we end up giving her an empty vial. We also learn that the black dragon's name is Naseal. He is a conspirator dragon that pretends to go by the name of Korvald. He holds The Eclipse Harrow Gang card and Korvald is a member of the Thousand Sword Alliance.

Sees-Nails has a flashback to hunting Naseal. Orion and Lawrence scratch out the trapping runes and Uranieth leaves the summoning dungeon. Orion and Lawrence record the scratched out runes before they remove them so they can come back later and record all the runes. We walk out the backdoor we spy in the room. We enter a pristine, but spartan, room. There is a bed and desk, but not much else. There is also a pool of water and a metal safe. There are items in the desk, a set of documents and ledgers. There is also a second set of documents noting the declared content of ships passing through port friendship vs the known contents. There are discrepancies oft used for smuggling. Taron deduces that the gang had an inside man and that the ships are sneaking in primal obsidian. Sees-Nails opens the safe. Inside the safe is some good loot. Del dives into the pool of water and swims 300 feet before running into a greate. There is a a 'blood lock'? with a harpoon trap pointing at it. Sees-Nails surprisingly fails to open the lock. The trap triggers and obliterates a ruffian finger Sees-Nails used to attempt. Orion transforms into a prawn and continues swimming through the gate to investigate. After another hundred feet or so, Orion pops out into a gaudy and comfortable room. There is a small kitchenette and a comfy bed. Orion detransforms and pulls 1 of 2 levers on a wall. In the distance he hears “Great White's here”. There's also a wooden lock that Orion identifies as a 'bloodlock', just like the one back in the underwater tunnel. Orion pulls the other level and and he can hear the hum of primal obsidian being pumped with magic. Moments later, a werecrocodile shows up. Orion hides. The werecrocodile looks around and mutters “She must be up there” and looks at the ladder and bloodlock. The werecrocodile leaves and Orion takes the opportunity to attempt to bypass the wooden door. He eventually manages to burn through it without using the lock, but Orion passed through the destroyed door.

He climbs the ladder into an office. There is the loud sound of metal on metal. There is a desk with various ledgers on it. The office looks like a prepared “legitimate” office for business. Orion looks out a window and recognizes the location. He is at the Key Forge.

The group catches up to Orion inside the bedroom. Del steals some Barclay Vineyard Wine. It is a pinot Noir. We also steal some scotch that is from the Truscian Isles. We decide to advance and clear out the basement instead of attempting any stealth or such. Thalacos kicks down the door. There are two werecrocodile guards. Lawrence shouts at them.

We do a running fight, but one guard manages to send out an alarm. Del is also severely injured by the fight. Ayin opens a set of doors revealing a bunch of loot and an injured man bound in a chair. He was clearly tortured. The man has a red bandana, indicating he is with the Upstanding Gentlemen. In another room, there is a corpse with an arm replaced by primal obsidian in the shape of an arm. The primal obsidian is pulsing with magic, but the man is very dead. There is also a dwarf with white hair in that same room. He is taking notes and fiddling with dials on a machine. He is very focused and does not notice us watching him. We recall that Queen Ryla of Redcastle is the only known person who has created a working primal obsidian prosthesis on herself(or anyone). Everyone else dies or rejects the prosthesis. We take the loot and the prisoner.

We sneak back to the hotel we rented our rooms at, Key House 1. Before we can enter in to the building, we see effigies of the party. There is a corpse painted green with a note saying “Leave 800 gold at the Halfway House and the party may be allowed to live”.

We wake up the prisoner and learn his name is Dale. He informs us that he's a simple town guard for Bassari. We decide he's withholding information from us and we press him. He informs us that a boat was bringing in primal obsidian. He says it's a special kind of boat, an underwater boat.

We recruit Dale to help continue the enterprises in Valcastle. Orion fakes putting a mark on Dale to track him and force him to go to Valcastle. Dale also says that the Upstanding Gentlemen are going to raid the music festival where it's suspected that a lot of the Docksiders Gang members will be. We chartered a caravan so Dale can have a safe trip to Valcastle. He informs us of a few Upstanding Gentlemen. Lieutenant Strohl organized the volunteer gang members.

We head back into Bassari. The line to enter the city is much longer than when we first entered it 24 hours ago. We spy a half-orc named Boss who headed up the caravan we initially all met on. We give Boss a favor to take Dale to Valcastle.

As we re-enter the city and head to the upper district, we see some 3rd hand images of our visages on bounty posters. It lists several of our crimes. We take a few as keepsakes. The posters bear the seal of the Governor of Bassari. We decide to sneak further into the city via the harbor instead of through the city streets. It is quite easy. We walk up to a ship drydock. No one is working, but there are musicians and street performers all warming up for the Festival of Sheylin. There is also some good smelling street/festival food. There are town criers shouting out for people to buy wares and events and so on. We see a few people taking a step back from us as we walk through. There are also no guards or Docksiders Gang selling anything. The party splits, some are going to the music paradate. Orion and Taron look for Lieutenant Strohl. They notice there are guards in the Upper District of the city.

Back to the party in the paradate. The musicians see [Osol] who is there to start the parade. He starts with an intermediately difficult song titled “Hym of the Radiant”. It talks of 7 knights who were blessed to transform into dragons. Orion and Zara recognize the song as vaguely something the leader of the Citrine Academy would sing to transform into his Aspect. We also posit that the song may be related to the temple we discovered and found the black scale at.

As the crowd disperses and musicians fall from the parade, as per the competition, and the last songs start playing, a guard shows up and declares that the remaining crowd/parade is disturbing the peace and that everyone there is under arrest.

There is a fight and we capture/kill the guards that come to arrest us. We save a few folks and Osol. Zara continues playing during the whole process and wins the music festival. Congratulations!

We follow Osol back to the Church of the Radiant Prism into a private office for discussions. There are some scrolls and diaries in the office. Osol informs us that there is a possible secret prison. He further informs us that Lieutenant Strohl has an office at “The Armory” if we wish to see him.

The party splits up to investigate the information we've gained. Lawrence, Sees-Nails, Orion stealth in to the upper district. Del, Taron, Thalacos put on disguises. The disguises get the party up to the wall separating the upper district from the lower district, where two women stop them. Orion gets captured by the guards, but for a fat bribe, they'll let him go. He pays, but Sees-Nails gets/will get the gold back.

The upper district is vastly different than the lower district. There are primal obsidian tracks that run through the streets. Trollies are pulled by weird primal obsidian arms, dragging the trolley smoothly behind them.

We board a trolley, our object is to head to the Governor's mansion. We get off at the the appropriate stop, right in front of his house. There are steps that light up as we appraoch. A goblin exits the house. Orion pulls out a wanted poster and shows it to the house manager, May. May leads us to a waiting room. Two minutes later a maid Salane appears to make sure we are comfortable and pour some alcohol. A while later, governor Sud appears and explains his position.

Sud's describes the armoury loosely. We get a touch more information and we plan to head to the armory and 'talk' to Lieutenant Strohl. Sud sent us into a trap/ambush. We have to kill a bunch of guards and Lieutenant Strohl and we take over the armory.

We plan our revenge on Sud. We spy a cannon and start dragging it up the street towards the governor mansion. We shout a message at Sud and the mansion and begin firing upon the mansion, tearing a few holes into mansion itself. We march inwards and begin clearing the mansion. We find a note from Mr. May that says “You owe us for all the things you took and I will collect from your corpses”. We opt to ignore the threat and continue on our investigation in the smoking mansion. Sees-Nails opens a book.

We investigate down the basement and find a teleportation circle. However, it has been modified in some way. We explore further, noticing that the house staff left recently. We enter the last room. Inside is Great White who is wielding the Wax Works card. Governor Sud] is wielding the [[Snakebite card.

We finish the fight against Sud and Great White. It's a tough fight, but we are victorious! Sud dies, but as he's dying/dies, he rips open his chest and t-poses on the party. Moments later, he begins speaking in a voice that's not quite his, but much deeper. He introduces himself as Naseal, owner of the Eclipse harrowing card. He congratulates us for doing a swell job fighting the Harrow Gang. He goes on to say that we are lacking in evidence that our cause is just and that people will want answers. However, he'll help us out in exchange for us killing the Empty Throne cardholder. At this point, we surmise that he does not know that we know his human identity, Korvald. We elect to keep that information close. He wants us to get to Velkaton, capital of the Thousand Sword Alliance when we receive a summons. Then, from there, we will need to get to the wedding party we are hosting in Valcastle.

There, at the wedding party, is where the Empty Throne will make his move and likely reveal himself. Naseal doesn't want us to tip anyone off that we're working with him. He also advises us that “We did not get all the undead caches when fighting the Crows”

We learn that Taron was finding the cards under orders/request of the Eclipse. What a dirty traitor!(jk) Del attempts to interfere with Orion who is trying to pick up the Waxworks. Naseal says that the card will not work for Orion, but Orion vows to figure it out. Naseal taunts him. Bianca attempts to stop Orion, having sworn death and destruction to the Harrow Gang. Naseal asks Sees-Nails to say hello to Elena and “that bastard Dram”. Dram the heroic is the first hero, some people believe, to have driven out the dragons from Sanctuary.

Orion finally manages to pick up the cards. Del wants Orion to ask some questions about the Empty Throne while holding the card. Orion wisely decides to use Del as a guinea pig instead. Del takes the Snakebite and tries to say “The Empty Throne is”, but some magical compulsion or geas nearly kills Del. Everyone laughs and hands the cards over to Taron. Orion dips to go investigate the library they passed through. He finds some spellbooks and he notices that there are some codes hidden within the messages.

As we muddle about, we receive a letter from the Empty Throne of Trusscia.

11th of Humid. We learn that we are summoned to the head of the Thousand Sword alliance to stand trial/answer a summons on our actions in Bassari. We learn the trial is on the 18th of Humid.

Some stuff happened with the religious leaders of the town. We are now interrogation the shark shark we captured. We learn the Harrow Gang's purpose in Bassari was to cause chaos to take the focus off Suds. We learn that the primal obsidian is getting moved to Velkidan. We learn that the Eclipse is the recruiter for the Harrow Gang. We think the Eclipse is a scrawny little bitch and we're gonna wreck him. We learn an older dwarven gentlemen, too sharply dressed(likely Korvold summoned the captured demon.

We kill the shark lady/Great White and dispose of the corpses of the dead.

We have some time to kill until the 18th of Humid Taron spends the day holding office hours of mayor, since we killed the last one. Orion writes down the demon trapping runes underwater.

Orion learns the targeting location of the teleportation circle. It will take us to Velkaton

We setup the ritual teleportation spell to Velkaton.

We depart for Velkaton a bit early so we can prepare. We use the coordinates of the teleportation circle we found in the mansion. It takes us to a dimly lit room. We notice a teleportation anchor inside the room. It appears we are in a warehouse of sorts.

Velkaton is a fort town. The oldest and most prestigious area is the 'Upon Hill District. It is quite ritzy. It holds the Council of One Thousand Swords. A halfling woman in a trendy coat and a sunflower approaches us. It is Piper!. She runs up to us as we leave the warehouse. She says it's a warehouse for the Harrow Gang activities in the city. She's been stalking it for a while. We explain to Piper how we got there. We eventually come to the topic of the court/investigation. She explains that, as sword holders, we have rights. We can refuse questions. She tells us to avoid interactions or currying favor with certain people. These people are Voices of the Many. They suck. Lady Vaishali Dronabu. She sucks and is an upstanding elvish woman. She is a socialite, a mover and a shaker. She likes making backroom deals. She's a real snake.

After the trial, Piper wants us to help her clean up some caches of undead zombies/monsters that she's identified.

Prep for trial

Prep for trial

Day of trial.

We enter into the central chamber. There are three spells that seem to affect us. A barrier to keep us inside a central area, a barrier to obscure our vision of the attending sword holders. They are visibleish, can't quite make them out, and a zone of truth. Everyone passes the check for the zone of truth except Orion.

We also note that there are 6 primal obsidian golems. These are rare and fantastical golems, requiring a lot of primal obsidian to make.

Zowa? calls for a quorum of holders. A voter in the fog shouts to hurry up and start the trial. The judge is not Korvold. It is [Maglar]], warden of the jail in Richdjfdlkf?. He will be the prosecution. He presents his case to the sword hodlers. It seems fairly even, but the case does seem highly political, even if there is some truth to it.

Our rebuttal is solid and diplomatic. Lady Vaishali Dronabu shows her support for us. We reveal Sud's involvement in the smuggling of primal obsidian into the continent without going through proper channels. This generates a mummer through the crowd. Eventually the vote is called. It works in our favor. Maglar votes against us, but the votes assigned to him by Korvold are for us. We win with a whopping 724 votes in favor of us. Afterwards we talk with Piper, Rowan, Rowan's Wife, but Lasdy Vaishali Dronabu shows up and interrupts us. Apparently Taron set the party up to owe Lady Vaishali Dronabu a favor in exchange for her votes. She wants us to invite her to the bridal party. Also, we learn that she is banging Korvold. This party will be the biggest event of the year and she wants to ensure she'll be there. Even the Kingdom of Summer will be there as well as 2 Aspects of the First Light. Citrine and 1 other. We learn of the Order of the Dran and Platinum Shields

A bunch of crafting happens for Orion

We go with someone to explore a possible Trusscian Floating Fortress remnant. It's out on the ocean bottom continental shelf. As we arrive, there is a megalodon attack. We defeat it quickly and descend down to the suspected location for the wreck. [Sees-Nails approaches the underwater structure and notes it was attached to another, larger structure. It is smooth with no visible damage. It was just..disconnected.

We enter a bubble of oxygen. Orion detects that the structure has a coating of divine magic instead of arcane magic as expected. Sees-Nails opens a door. We look in and there is a colorful room with the remains of food. Also noted is that there are no bodies even though it's clear there should likely be some. There are piles of clothes, as if they were raptured. We see two winged humanoids floating and singing discordantly. They are choral angels which normally sound beautiful, but these do not. There is a fractured looking glass effect on their flesh and bodies, as if they are a part of a broken reality. We kill them and they shatter along some sort of weird lines. There is also the vibe that they wanted us to kill them, even though they fought us. It was a mercy killing of sorts, since something very unnatural was happening. Orion identifies the cracks as divine in nature, but not normally associated with angels of any sort.

As we continue exploring, we come across a puzzle. It is a colored light puzzle. There is a room with some documents. Orion recognizes them as a maintenance schematics for the Trusscian Floating Fortress. He takes them for future study. We analyze the documents best we can in the moment and learn that the Fortress is not powered by Primal Obsidian, which everyone thought it was. We do not yet know for sure what powers it.

We open another door and find two flaming angels with blue cracks all over their body. They look like they're in agony. We fight them. The angels say “All who live have sinned. We lived, we died, we live on against our will”. An angel reaches out and grabs Sees-Nails head. The angel leaves a First Light symbol brand. Orion identifies the angels as Balisse Angels aka Confessor Angels. They are traditionally associated with the First Light and Sarenrae. We defeat the angels and open another door. Inside are 7 cots aligned with a simple pedestal. There is a chipped, floating, black orb floating over the pedestal. [Thalacos notes it is a stone shaped like an Aspect Stone. Orion considers this advanced heresy. There are also profane runes, runes that combine Trusscian runes with First Light runes in some unholy combination. Orion also notes that there is no Aspect that bears resemblance to the one they see before them. (see sweet video)

Two beautiful, resplendent angels appear in the room. They do a ton of damage. Orion identifies them as Guardian Angels. We defeat them. Del runs up and opens up a compartment in the pedestal. There is a bit of loot. Piper lets us know that the runes seem to pull energy out of the beds towards the stone. The floor is a bit charred and there are clearly markings indicating that. The pedestal pulls energy from the stone and sends it into the fortress. Orion and Lawrence take note of all the runes. Orion recognizes that pulling the orb will pop the bubble of oxygen that's keeping the air in. Del volunteers to pull the orb into a bag and everyone else can leave early to get to the diving bubble. Orion and Lawrence emphasize grabbing the orb with a bag and not with hands. Del ignores their advice and grabs the stone. He feels a message, a power coursing through him asking to lean into the power and accept the great power. Sees-Nails takes the orb from Del and experiences the same thing, pondering it, staring at it. Orion gently takes the orb from Sees-Nails and hides it on his person. Orion also grabs a clockwork heart from one of the famous Trussican clock work soldiers.

We talk to King Rowan who is free balling it inside his house at Velkaton. We discuss using a teleportation circle to go as far west as possible towards Valcastle. He agrees and will get us a teleportation circle half off.

We teleport to Red Castle. It is the center castle of King Rowan's territory. We head east towards Valcastle]. We arrive and barely recognize the location since it's been so heavily reconstructed for the bridal party. The walls are a newly white. The party opts to rename Valcastle to Whitecastle. We head to the manor where we meet Erieet the house manager. Ariat believes Queen Ryleigh is making odd decoration choices for the bridal party. Ariat is very stressed out. There is a passive aggressiveness between Queen Ryleigh and Princess Lena.

We are excited, the drake's egg hatched.

Downtime

Downtime

Downtime

Downtime

Downtime

Downtime

Del meets [Elissa]] again after fleeing from her in the Fae.

We head off to fight the rest of the undead caches. We arrive at the location told to us by Piper. We open up a cave to find some charcoal zombies and some ghostly characters. They are corralled around a teleportation circle. We defeat the undead creatures. Orion studies the circle and finds that it's running on a timer that will trigger and teleport the zombies to the city center of Red Castle downtown the sunrise of the day before the wedding.

Downtime activities

Downtime activities

Downtime activities

Downtime activities

Downtime activities

Downtime activities

Downtime activities

We head out to another cave system, better prepared for fighting ghosts and other undead creatures. We open it. As the party gets ready to fight, Orion casts Loose Time's Arrow. Suddenly he disappears. He sees a mountain top with a dilapidated structure and he hears a voice that he can't quite make out say “if this is the 2nd location, there must be a 3rd location at the other point”. He blinks back to the party and the spell finishes casting. We defeat the monsters. Orion identifies a creature as a prowler wight. The teleportation circle is set to complete 1 day before the Betrothal Party/Bridal Party. It would send them to a different part of Red Castle.

We go to a remaining cache. There Orion casts Loose Time's Arrow again. He blinks out again. This time, Orion can get a bit of his bearings and identify the location. He recognizes a Temple of Desna and hears someone say again “If there are two temples here, there must be a third at the other point of the triangle”. Orion sketches all the information he can down and begins investigating the effects of the magic.

We travel to Castle Town

We travel to Castle Town

We travel to Castle Town

We travel to Castle Town

We travel to Castle Town

We travel to Castle Town

We travel to Castle Town

We arrive at Castle Town. We visit the mine/tavern of the Miss Stone. We learn it was sold off for a pretty penny and she retired somewhere nice. The town is bustling and busy and that's good.

We head out to find the last known cache of undead zombies. It is in a structure similar to the Sarenrae Temple from before, the one with the black dragon scale. However, the structure looks like the preservation spell wore off completely. It is in great disarray. However, the door is still a hard, shuttered door. We open it. There are several Desna items. There is a tube with a gem. Orion identifies an item as a Starless Scope, Guiding Star. A lucky foot-style item is discovered. Orion realizes that this is the location he saw in his blinks after casting Loose Time's Arrow. He says the line “If there are two temples here, there must be a third at the other point of the triangle”.

We find the zombies and start fighting them, we win. The teleportation ritual is for 2 days before the bridal party. It is pointed at Castle Town and not Red Castle. We realize we have a problem.

We discuss going to the suspected 3rd triangle point, a temple of Sheylin. We take 3 days to travel there.

Travel

Travel

The temple of Sheylin is in good shape, the magical preservation spell appears to be fully charged.

Orion enters the temple. It is very well preserved. There is a stained glass window of Nirvana, sheylin's domain/the good place. There is also a 5 panel fresco that seems similar to the damaged one from the Sarenrae temple. It reads as follows:

Panel 1: A group of worshippers pleading to Sheylin. Panel 2: Serenrae, Desna, and Sheylin are in a circle conferring with one another. Panel 3: The trio of goddesses are pulling a piece of Nirvana into a moon shape. Panel 4: Sheylin splits the light from the moon into 7 colored gems. They are: Ruby, Citrine, Heliodor, Emerald, Sapphire, Iolite, and Amethys Panel 5: There knights in a star pattern. They have one of the 7 gems embedded in their armor.

Under the panels there is a quote from The Testament of the Radiant Prism:“By the grace of Desna”(See Discard) Orion recognizes that there is an apocalypse that can/could be happening.

The party goes up to the last locked door. They realize that there needs to be an offering of a piece of art for Sheylin. Orion is inspired and takes the primal obsidian chunk from the mine and begins crafting something like a manic dwarf.

Downtime/Crafting

Downtime/Crafting

Downtime/Crafting

Downtime/Crafting

Downtime/Crafting

Downtime/Crafting

Downtime/Crafting

A week later he produces a prism shaped object with the moon of the first light on one side and balmara on the other, with 7 rivers of light flowing between them. He offers it up to the temple and it accepts the craftwork. The door opens to a room filled with preserved art pieces of the highest quality. An untold number exist there. The prism Orion offers disappears from his hands and reappears on a pedestal. He is rewarded with the Glaive of the Artist.

Del and Sees-Nails attempts to steal some of the artwork. Strong magics punish them for their sins until they return the artpieces.

We return to White Castle

We have a month of downtime before the start of the bridal party.

A giant treeant approaches the castle. It is Charkon, an enforcer of the Thorngrave. He is here to see Bianca and attend the party as an emissary of the Queen of Mushrooms

He visits Bianca and it is quite endearing and heartwarming.

There is a fight at the casino. Obsiliuss Ferro is Hamish Duff of Bulwark get into a fight at the card games. Del insults the slightly more stuck up, nepo baby Hamish Duff and Hamish storms off in anger. It takes some effort to keep Hamish from just leaving the party, which would be a great insult to King Rowan and ill omens for the party.

Lady Vaishali Dronabu shows up and demands to see Taron and wants to be shown to her room. There some things happen that are odd and sets the party's off. We decide to spy on Dronabu.

Orion turns into a small fly and sneaks into her room. He investigates about while she is there, but as he's leaving, she senses something. It is highly odd and very, very perceptive of her. Still, nothing comes of it and Orion leaves.

Taron and Lawrence and Sees-Nails go to visit her. We learn that she has a harrow card, but it's unknown which one.

DAY OF THE BRIDAL PARTY.

We open with a challenge to see who will announce the bride and groom. It is a competition consistent of several parts.

Suddenly there is an attack! A mighty warrior dwarf and a black dragon appear, dropping undead monsters that begin marching onwards. The dragon makes a speech. It is the Eclipse!

It's the day of the bridal party! Woo! We prepare for a competition titled “The Noble Quadrathalon”. The winner will receive honor and stuff! Sees-Nails does not join us for the competition, but opts to watch Lady Vaishala Dronabu in stealth. Things begin happening with her.

The rest of us begin lining up for the archery competition! It's great. Suddenly, a dragon-like shadow passes over us and drops a series of crates that open to reveal small, weak zombies. The guards begin fighting these small zombies before several more crates drop, revealing 3 more powerful undead monsters that split off to attack some of the major party events: the casino containing Elysia, the music stage/dance floor, and at the end of the archery line. These are more serious creatures. The Serapis the Citrine Aspect ignites his power and transforms into a 15 foot tall knight-like character with a citrine faceplate that exudes holy light. He creates a powerful barrier to protect the nobles that had started fleeing towards him. The party splits up to maximize saving the civilians around the party.

The Eclipse, aka Naseal aka Korvold lands on the roof of the mansion after dropping one last crate that reveals a dwarf-sized man wearing a primal obsidian mask and a primal obsidian golem. We know little of the former, but this appears to be a 7th primal obsidian golem! We begin fighting the undead. Del and Taron head towards the Casino, Lawrence moves into an overwatch position and starts kiting the undead at the music stage, Ayin and his eidolon dragon Cornu Bella head off to fight the undead at the archery range while Bianca charges head first towards the masked dwarf and the golem. Orion follows not far behind, buffing party members as he can. Taron and Del handily fight their undead monster, a type of Mummy. Ayin struggles with the wraith, but does his best. Lawrence leads the other wraith on a merry chase, plinking away at it.

The masked dwarf figure has a card that seems to increase gravity and anchor people to the ground. He taunts Bianca and starts slow walking towards the mansion, which the Eclipse sits upon, talking to someone within. The golem and the dwarf are both too much for Bianca, so she focuses her attention on the primal obsidian golem, but with some handy help from Orion, the monster is reduced to pieces. The tables on this fight are turning when suddenly an explosion echoes out of the mansion!

We slay the remaining creatures, including the masked dwarf figure known as the Warden. We identify the card he was wielding as the Demon's Lantern. Naseal climbs our roof top up, says we did well, but that more is expected of us. He flaps into the air and over the corpse of the Warden and destroys it in a blast of draconic acid before flying off, leaving us with just the items behind. The remaining small zombies and undead are defeated by the guards and we declare victory for the moment. The place is a mess. No deaths, but several casualties. Some party goers start leaving, shaken by the events.

Piper informed King Rowan of Queen Ryleigh as delicately and capably as she could. He is upset about the events, but disappears to collect himself.

We spend some time talking to Sees-Nails about his experience. It turns out that Queen Ryleigh is the Empty Throne Harrow Gang card owner. She supposedly disappeared into a teleportation portal created by Lady Dronabu after attempting, and nearly succeeding, to kill Piper. She used an Urgathoan ritual dagger to almost permanently, without chance of resurrection, slay Piper. The queen left behind a note that says “I left behind the parts you men care about”.–Empty Throne. Apparently Queen Ryleigh cut off the fleshy bits of her body from shoulder down her entire body, leaving only the primal obsidian that was her prosthesis intact.

Piper explains what happened before Sees-Nails bravely saved her. She had been talking with Queen Ryleigh who had just shown her that the primal obsidian prosthesis had spread on her body. Piper talks about how after Queen Ryleigh added the prosthesis, she started hearing voices. This was initially attributed to the massive amounts of drinking she started doing, where there were also small bits of lost time. Queen Ryleigh was supposed to receiving help from a doctor for this. As Queen Ryleigh became more and more politically involved in the kingdom and world, she started losing more and more time. Piper suggests that this is when the Harrow Gang activity picked up, since she became the Empty Throne.

Moments after the undead were dropped by the Eclipse/Naseal, it seemed like a light switch flipped and Queen Ryleigh stopped acting like Queen Ryleigh and attempted to murder Piper and blame it on us.

We tell Piper that we believe that Naseal/the Eclipse is Korvold, the large and powerful sword holder in the Thousand Sword Alliance. She says that it's probably best if we don't reveal our information, keeping it close to our chest and that we should proceed carefully. She does suggest that Korvold was thought to be out of his mansion and that we should perform a raid of some sort on the abode to find any information before Korvold finds out that we suspect who he is. She also asks if we can decipher whether Korvold was always Naseal or if Naseal took over Korvold's life, considering Korvold's rise to power is very well documented. We reply that we don't know, but we suspect the two have been one in the same forever, but we don't know for sure.

As the group is breaking up to rebuild the announcement party, Serapis, the Citrine Aspect grabs a hold of Orion and pulls him off a bit, talking with him. The two discuss the future of the Belmara. Apparently the Prime Aspect is quite ill and the conclave will be voting on the new Prime Aspect soon. RUBY ASPECT is currently favored, which bodes ill for Belmara and peace, already with the actions in Trusscia concerning the Rabbit Prince and the pacification force are hinting at terrible events to come. Orion also shows Serapis the Corrupted Aspect. Serapis steps back, saying that Orion should carry it, since it has quite negative effects if an Aspect touches it. He is puzzled and concerned that there is one at all, since RUBY ASPECT was supposed to have destroyed all of them. If there is one, there may be others as well, a very concerning prospect. Serapis warns Orion to not use the corrupted aspect, as it is powerful and evil, and he should take it to the Citrine Academy for destruction, or at least containment. Orion agrees. Serapis hands Orion a lanyard to wrap around his shoulder, giving him a promotion in the clerical ranks of the First Light for his hard work and effort during the day and lately. Orion beams with pride.

Prince Rowan gives a rousing speech, saying that although the forces of evil have struck a sour blow, it only highlights how good and powerful the alliance forming will be. “ The party continues, reforming with a few less guests and some initial hesitancy. However, once the alcohol starts flowing again and the music beats, the party livens back up. Charkon summons the betrothed Princess Leena and the Prince of Frogs to the party, deeming it safe for their arrival. There is much joyousness at a party that will be remembered.

Later, Prince Rowan wants to buy the crates that dropped the undead from us, declaring that it is ours by combat, but he would like to purchase them immediately. We agree and sell him the crates for 2000 gold.

The day after the party, there is a strange discordant vibe in the air. It is an awkard combination of relief, concern, unsurety, and the general hangover of an exciting party. Whilst preparing his daily meditations and spells for the day, Orion experiences a thought, a moment, a vision. He sees, or rather feels, himself transported to somewhere else. Perhaps another plane of existence. There are golden concentric circles appearing and disappearing, phasing. He looks in the distance and sees, what perhaps could be, a woman. Her hair is a fire, appearing to float immersed in water. She holds forth a pendulum in one hand and it swings back and forth in its precise, mathematical course. Orion awakes. There, before him, is an owl. How it got into his room, or where it came from is unknown. Still, Orion ponders it before accepting the reality before him. He opts to name the owl 'Sir Harold Oskle Oswald the Third', aka Sir Hoot.

The group discusses their next course of action to take. Ayin had a dream about a certain character, but he doesn't know much more than a name of Rafa. He speaks to Serapis about Rafa after introductions by Orion. Serapis describes that according to heretical lore, Rafa was a dragon that trained Dram the first hero and his fighters to fight the dragon.

Ayin also speaks to Sees-Nails and they identify the location of where the training camp was, roughly. It will take a month of walking there or a week plus a teleport to reach their destination.

We need to go to Red Castle regardless for the teleport. We offer to escort King Rowan to Red Castle and he's going to leave in 3 days

Downtime

Downtime

The party discusses whether to go to find informatin about Rafa or continue with our plan of investigation Korvald's mansion. However, as we are talking a messenger arrives and describes a horrifying scenario. There are undead attacks happening on the eastern side of the continent in small villages. Just after the attacks happen, knights in black armor with gold crests show up to dispatch the undead. They are bearing a mark we titled the Shattered Throne. Thereafter a woman appears with long golden hair appears, described to be Dronabu, and starts shouting the nobles have abandoned them. She leaves a note NOTE that claims that the nobles and leaders have abandoned them, but the Obsidian Empress will appear and save them and that the people should support the Obsidian Empire. We assume that it is the Empty Throne/Queen Ryleigh. King Rowan is informed and he is angry. He wants us to deal with this. We agree and teleport to Velkaton and begin dealing with this problem. We escort King Rowan to Red Castle.

We teleport to Velkaton. Almost immediately we hear a newspaper hawking a hot off the press news about the wedding, describing the wedding as unmitigated disaster with many casualties. It points fingers at the Lords of Whitecastle for working with the Harrow Gang, especially listing Taron as a member. It continues to slander the group's name. We decide to investigate that, since we know for sure that it's going to be a problem. The newspaper publisher is Peacock Fixedseed House