Atemcester Arc

Arc Summary
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Session 65

 * Google Document (8-19-22) (HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAMIE! :D)

Ashara looks around at her unconscious friends and uses Sending to bring Kain into the loop as she uses Kilwin’s healer’s kit to attend to their injuries. Kain is very confused and alarmed by Ashara’s message and, while he can’t teleport anyone to Raven Rock directly, says he’ll try to find a way to help. Ashara stands watch over her friends for a time.

In the morning, Briar returns to consciousness at the Nest, lying on a cot. He awakes with a start, waking up Ashara in the process. As he looks around, Briar notices that the rest of the party is still asleep and on cots around him. Briar asks if they’re okay, and Ashara confirms that they basically are, all things considered. She explains that what burned has burned and that there’s a number of casualties in the town, although she’s not sure how many there are. She says that a few surviving townsfolk witnessed us fighting Tyrian and Slumberjack and, when the dust settled but most of us didn’t seem to be getting up, they approached and helped carry the unconscious party members to the inn. There are a number of ordinary people around the inn as well, milling around and nursing mugs. Ashara hasn’t really talked to any of them, though, and has been waiting for the rest of the party to wake up. Around this time, Reides wakes up as well. He’s groggy and coughs up some smoke before he fully comes to and begins to panic. Ashara reassures him that everyone’s okay and explains what happened. Reides realizes that he was carried in a wheelbarrow while he was unconscious and is a little sad he missed it. The conscious party members joke around about pranking Kilwin and Jorah awake around the time the two of them wake up. Jorah, maintaining the tradition, is suffering. Kilwin is really distressed and asks if we know what happened to Slumberjack. We don’t yet, but there was no body or other sign of them after the fight. The demon bodies also got eaten by Slumberjack’s last attack. After some dithering, Kilwin reveals to the rest of the party that Kima contacted him via Sending to tell him that some of the people who had their souls removed during the devastation of Port Valor are now just normally dead. He’s initially not sure what that means, but thinks it can’t be a coincidence, eventually realizing that the souls may have been powering the orb that Slumberjack was using to cast spells. We hate that, especially when we think about their big last attack! Kilwin wants to immediately leave the Nest for Raven’s Beak to look for the orb. The rest of the party counsels him to slow down, since we’re not really in a state to be going anywhere. Jorah’s not sure he can even walk and he’s very hungry. He also doubts that a powerful magic item like that would get lost that easily, although Kilwin doesn’t want to ignore the possibility that Slumberjack dropped it accidentally during their fall. We also discuss how Slumberjack’s behavior seemed off and how they seemed to be in pain before attacking us. Kilwin mentions that Slumberjack has a history of losing control over themself and this seems to be the awful logical conclusion of that. Reides gives Briar a very sincere apology for dumping all of our baggage on him at once. Jorah offers to get us some food while we explain Everything to Briar, although Ashara says she’ll get it instead since Jorah looks like he might barf if he moves too much.

Briar learns that the souls of the people of Port Valor were taken in an attack by someone serving a demon lord’s high-ranking lieutenant. That demonic lieutenant is also searching for objects called the Abyssal Crests that can be used to unseal his master, a powerful demon lord who’s been locked away for millennia. Back in the Exeter, we took one of these Crests, which is actually Kilwin’s armor. Tyrian and Slumberjack are both currently serving the lieutenant, although Slumberjack didn’t really have much choice but to agree to go with him. Jorah sounds awful, so Kilwin heals him a little bit. Jorah also mentions that there’s an unknown number of enchanted weapons that can summon said demonic lieutenant, and we’ve managed to collect two of them. They’re something else we have to deal with! Briar admits he’s surprised at how much we have going on right now, but doesn’t seem particularly disturbed by it and still wants to travel with us for a time. The rest of the party is relieved.

In addition to the orb, we realize we need to find Cricket and Gin and the Heartkins. The drow barkeep cuts in to tell us that the Heartkins had checked in us while most of us were unconscious and might come back again once word gets around that we’re awake. Ashara bemoans the lack of privacy, but we decide to wait for a little bit. Reides brings Pepega back from the pocket dimension directly into a hug. Pepega is clearly worried about Reides upon seeing his current state, and she accepts the hug. The doors of the Nest are thrown open, and the Heartkins enter. From the brief glimpse outside, we see some lingering smoke, but the barricade has clearly been moved and our carriage is no longer out front. Akaia speaks first and says she’s glad we’re awake and that we actually saved everyone. Jedson adds that the remaining demons fled Raven Rock after the fight at Raven’s Beak. The Heartkins saw them leaving, so they figured it was safe to come back. They also brought Gin back with them, and he’s safe and sound. Kilwin tells them that Mick didn’t survive the attack and apologizes. Reides assures them that we were with him, so he didn’t die alone, and Kilwin says he told us where to go and was very brave. The Heartkins are clearly saddened by the news. Still, they tell us that the innkeeper has offered to let us stay at the Nest as long as we’d like without charge. Unfortunately, we’re pretty sure we need to go and soon! Ashara asks if we can have some rations instead. Akaia thinks this is a really bad idea, especially considering that we’re still really beat up. We assure her that it’ll be better for everyone if we leave fairly soon, although we probably do need to at least rest for most of the day. We make plans to leave Raven Rock around dusk. First, though, the party heads back to Raven’s Beak to look for the orb or any possible hints to Slumberjack’s fate. Jorah is prepared to use Quickbrand as a cane, although Briar lends him a quarterstaff instead. Some of the villagers offer to prepare our carriage for us while we’re gone. As we leave the Nest, we look at the stables, which have been returned to their regular state. Cricket is alive and well! Apparently, the stabled horses were taken inside the inn during the attack to keep them safe. Cricket enjoys the many pats he is given.

At Raven’s Beak, the whole party looks around. Kilwin is able to get a pretty good look at the shore from the edge of the cliff and sees no signs of orbs. Briar looks for some animals he can talk to and finds some seagulls. He casts Speak With Animals and yells to them. Eventually, they take notice and some land on the cliff’s edge near him, tilting their heads. Jorah comments that seabirds are usually Interesting to talk to. Briar asks the seagulls if they saw any of what happened last night, and one says it was The Darndest Thing. He saw a blinding light on the cliff and flew over to look, where he saw a person falling from the cliff. They were on a splat course and he was a little excited, because it would’ve been a free meal, except the person just disappeared. Briar thanks him for his help and feeds him part of a ration as thanks. The seagull is very happy about this and tells his companion that they’ve gotta tell everyone about this guy. Briar realizes he must be going. Briar tosses some more ration food away from him as a distraction, and the party flees as a huge flock of seagulls descend on Raven’s Beak. Kilwin thanks his friends for looking for the orb with him, even if it was a long shot. Briar speculates that Slumberjack transported themself to another plane, especially since demons and revenants are involved in this whole mess. We’re also confident that we’ll encounter Slumberjack and the orb again at some point. Kilwin uses Sending to update Kima on the situation. She lets him know that quite a few of the preserved devastation victims passed and urges him to save the remaining ones if he can.

We return to the Nest for a much-needed long rest. Briar contemplates taking some time to make sure that the people of Raven Rock have some farmable land but, considering that the town is already built out of volcanic rock and that the demons seemed focus on what easy targets they could find, infrastructure damage is relatively limited and the majority of the people survived the attack. Still, approximately a tenth of the houses seem to have been destroyed. While it isn’t good, it’s not as bad as we feared, and Briar decides to stick with the party. As we rest, several villagers stop by and thank whoever is awake at the time for our efforts in saving the town. The villagers also provide us each with ten days worth of rations to take with us.

As we wake up and get ready to go, the Heartkins come to check on us. They’re still a little skeptical of the wisdom of our plan to leave so quickly, but we hold firm. Jorah says he wishes we could stay and help Raven Rock deal with the aftermath, but we have time-sensitive business up north. They understand though and give us some winter cloaks to keep us warm for the journey, since the nights will start getting cold as we head north. The cloaks are trimmed with brown fur around the neck and bottom, with a brown interior and black exterior. Kilwin and Jorah start putting them on immediately, baffling Akaia. Kilwin says he’s just very touched by the gesture! We say our goodbyes to the Heartkins. As we head out, Kilwin thanks Reides for saving him with potions multiple times and gives him the potions of healing from the Robe of Useful Items. Reides says it’s no problem and he’s got Kilwin’s back!

The road out of Raven Rock is just as rough as the one in, with volcanic rock lining both sides of the path. After two days of travel, there’s signs of that rock giving way to more plant life, but it’s not until after another two days of travel that we start seeing rolling hills and the air starts getting chillier. Reides is doing fine though! Kilwin sends a message to Slumberjack telling them that he hasn’t given up on saving them and that the party could tell that something was wrong. They do not respond, although Kilwin doesn’t know if his message didn’t reach them or if they simply didn’t want to say anything. After another four days of travel, the hills give way to plains and in the distance, we can see large fields of winter wheat and crops. We realize we’re probably nearing Terrath. Jorah is familiar with the village from his time in Atemcester, while Kilwin has actually heard the farmers of Cowersby gossip about it. Terrath is a farming village that provides most of the crops to feed Atemcester. The city provides the village’s farmers with magically enhanced tools that help them increase their yield to the level they would need to sustain themselves along with the city. The farmers in Cowersby sometimes express jealousy of these magic tools.

On Leaffall 21, we arrive in Terrath. We don’t plan to stay overnight, since we don’t know how far Tyrian is behind us, but Jorah wants to stop in the inn for a meal and the local gossip. Reides is also curious if word of what happened in Raven Rock has spread, although we left quickly enough that he thinks we might be the first people here who could bring that news. We head to the inn and Jorah approaches the innkeeper, a portly human man with thinning gray hair and mutton chops, wearing a stained apron and going ham on a dirty glass with a cleaning rag. Jorah asks for food and any information the innkeeper might have heard about Atemcester lately. The innkeeper (who pauses to yell at a dog howling outside) offers the day’s special, Eadrenan bass. The innkeeper shares that the ships in port at Atemcester are still waylaid there, since a big storm has been over the Eadrenan Sea for quite some time. The farthest they can safely travel is Davenport, and there’s not much point in that. The innkeeper says they wouldn’t even be able to sail to Port Valor, if anyone would even want to. Farther ports are even more out of the question. Jorah mentions that we need to catch a ship somewhere, and the innkeeper says we’ll either need to wait it out or try to find someone crazy enough to sail into the storm. In exchange for the info, Jorah lets the innkeeper know that demons attacked Raven Rock and that it’s not the safest times right now. This is the first the innkeeper has heard of the attack. Jorah returns to the rest of the party and relays this, and we all order food, which comes with a soup and bread appetizer. Briar secretly seasons his soup. Despite his general wariness of people tampering with food, Jorah sees no sign of it, and Briar enjoys his more flavorful soup in secrecy. Kilwin observes that the storm has been going for quite some time. Jorah says he has a bad feeling about it! Reides would prefer not to discuss this in detail in a random inn, but we’ll talk it out later. Briar gets the feeling he’s missing something! Kilwin assures him that we can all share our backstories with him when we’re on the road, although he admits he shouldn’t speak for the rest of the party.

After we’ve eaten and left Terrath, we discuss the storm in a bit more detail. Briar learns that the Empire of Laverathia exists under the northern Eadrenan Sea and that Reides is from its capital, Aquos. Reides acknowledges that it might not be a regular storm, but he’s not too worried because Laverathia knows how to handle storms. He mentions that his dad doesn’t slack off when it comes to nature. He also shares that he was born during a storm. Reides also realizes that he really needs to tell Briar what his deal is, so he asks Briar if he remembers what Jorah said to the Heartkins that made everyone else really mad. Briar does but he winks at Reides and tells him that he wasn’t really that interested in it. Reides says that Briar is too good for his own good before revealing that he is, in fact, second in line to the throne of Laverathia. Briar is surprised! He says that he’s met people of many different standings though, some of whom were very colorful (blue is new though). His opinion of Reides appears to remain unchanged! Kilwin points out that the storm is going to help Reides meet his friend if nothing else, which Reides concedes. Ashara is also looking forward to seeing Kain again. Jorah figures he and Briar can just kind of hang out while this is happening. Jorah is pressured into telling the party a story of his bounty hunting days. Once, he was searching for a thief named Gale who was in Quadroad. Jorah had asked around, interrogated some people, and eventually learned the location of someone named Gale. Jorah went searching and made a plan to ambush Gale in his rooms and bring him back to the bounty office. The Gale he found though, was six feet tall and wearing full plate armor, which Jorah thought was strange. It turned out that this Gale wasn’t the thief, but was a member of the Drake Guard and Jorah was sneaking into his rooms. Jorah asks us to consider the effect of getting hit by a cart and says this was more like getting hit by a dragon. Still, Gale was unarmed, so Jorah survived the encounter long enough to straighten things out. He never did find the correct Gale, though. Briar tells Jorah that Erak has mentioned that he’s shockingly inaccurate with his crossbow. Reides tells him about the time he beat Jorah in an archery contest. Kilwin mentions that Jorah put a crossbow bolt through a tossed coin when we first met him and it was very impressive! Kilwin then concedes that Jorah has not consistently been able to replicate that in battle.

We’re still about two days away from Atemcester. Reides is having some anticipation about how it’s a city full of wizards, although Jorah says plenty of people there aren’t wizards. He didn’t even know many wizards back in the day, since he stayed away from the downtown area, spending most of his time in Westside and Southside, where the orphanage was. The big mages were generally in Downtown or Portside. The main wizards Jorah interacted with were those working with the Mana Wardens, since he would get into trouble a lot. Kilwin points out that he still hasn’t told us what he did, but Jorah would rather not talk about it. Kilwin thinks there’s a good chance we’ll find out anyway and Reides points out that Jorah will lose control of the narrative, but Jorah’s mind is unchanged. Briar asks if there’s druids in Atemcester, but all the ones Jorah has met have been on the other side of the Spine. There are lots of temples dedicated to the good and neutral gods, though, especially Ioun. Jorah also tells us that we’ll be able to drop the winter cloaks soon, since we’re coming up on the Everspring Forest. It surrounds Atemcester and the mages use enchantments to keep it springtime there year-round. We kind of don’t like that! Jorah knows but it is but what it is. Reides wonders how many spells he’d know if he formally studied magic like the Atemcester wizards, but the rest of the party assures him that he is a very cool and powerful wizard without that. Briar says if he studied in Atemcester, he’d probably know useless spells instead of the ones he does know.

As we travel, the path begins to slope down as we move along the Atemcestari Peninsula. Sure enough, the cold weather quickly recedes when we enter the forest. Briar observes the forest to see if any of the wildlife is distressed by the unnatural climate, but everything seems to be doing well enough. Eventually, we see a lake on the northern end of the peninsula, with a river going northeast into the sea. There’s a circular platform in the center of the lake, with bridges extending out to settlements on the lakeshore. The bridges aren’t actually suspending by anything and are, in fact, floating, as are the towers in the sky around the city. The towers have large green crystals at their bases, just like the one Kilwin found on the way to Kahzdurga. We discuss the cool rock, and Kilwin shows it to Briar, who recognizes it as an aerocrystal. They’re also used in the construction of airships. Briar is a fan of airships and was once yelled on one for trying to steal some of the aerocrystal, which is more of a concern for the people who can’t turn into birds. Kilwin asks if he’d like to have the aerocrystal, but Briar says it’s okay and it was more about the experience of being part of an airship ride.

In the late morning of Leaffall 25, we officially arrive in Atemcester. Jorah admits that he’s not sure where we should stay and doesn’t want to impose on Julia. Reides tries not to look excited as he casts Sending to his friend to ask if he knows a place to stay. His friend responds that the Fish and Spell in Portside is a good place and they can meet up there too. Jorah agrees that we should go there. Reides realizes he still needs to get some saltwater taffy! Kilwin asks if Jorah wants to visit Julia even though we won’t stay with her, but he says he’ll do that later. Jorah says there’s a ton of magic shops Downtown, where we can get some major shopping down. Reides starts feeling insecure about the Atemcester wizards and wonders if he should use the Hat of Disguise to give himself a long beard. We think he’s fine as he is, although Briar would like to see Reides with a long white beard anyway. We talk about needing items to move underwater, although Reides can handle our breathing. Since Briar can shapeshift, he says he’ll be fine without one. Jorah is also pretty confident that his crossbow will work underwater, but might want an upgrade anyway. Reides is pretty sure he’ll finally be able to find an Enduring Spellbook. Ashara wants a new dress. Kilwin has saved up a lot of gold for what we’ll need in Aquos, so he tells the party that he can help out with any purchases after they’ve figured out exactly how much that’ll be.

To make it to Downtown, we need to move through the Southside district. It’s one of the poorer districts of Atemcester, but the main street appears to be fairly well-off. There are many magical shops, but Jorah is aware that it’s mostly a tourist trap and most of these shops are running scams. Someone is hawking magic wands that don’t do anything, and someone offers Reides a sheet of thin blue plastic that they claim is a cloak of invisibility. Reides and Briar are very tempted, but Jorah manages to stop them from making any dubious purchases. Jorah warns them that while these are scams and probably do nothing, it’s an even worse idea to buy magical items to Portside, since there’s a much larger chance that they actually do something dangerous. We make it to the Creidon Bridge and feel the faint vibration of the aerocrystals beneath us. Reides stomps on the bridge, but nothing happens. Jorah says it’s very sturdy, since carts cross it every day. As we cross, we see many of those carts, as well as wizards conversing as they walk, carrying stacks of tomes and parchments. Fairly soon, we reach Downtown. As we approach two guards, wearing large purple chestpieces with eye emblems and blue robes underneath, Kilwin asks if Jorah did anything that the guards would remember him years later for. Jorah swears he didn’t and it was more of a personal thing. It’s also been eight years since he left, so he’s sure it’s fine.

There’s a huge circular building in the center of downtown with the largest of the floating towers positioned directly above it. The building on the ground is the Teleportation Nexus, which contains teleportation circles that lead to every major city in Lyvernus, as well as Arc-Delia. The tower is the Circle Tower. It’s the home of the Circle of Eight, a council of eight wizards who rule Atemcester. Jorah doesn’t remember the names of all of them from when he lived here and has no idea how it might have changed since then. Still, there’s a wizard representing each of the major schools of magic and are considered masters of their crafts. Although there’s a diversity of spells within the school, the mage representing the School of Necromancy tends to be the most controversial of the seats in the Circle. As we walk, Briar keeps an eye out for other druids. While we try to find the right kinds of stores, Jorah escorts us to a place called Valmorra’s Magical Gewgaws, which he thinks is the most likely to serve our needs from the few times he’s had to come downtown. The building he brings us to is very small, about the size of an outhouse, but he maintains that it’s the right place and goes inside, disappearing. Each party member walks through and finds themself in a much larger building, which they can tell from the view out the window is actually one of the towers floating above the city. Kilwin is a little freaked! Jorah is very blase about the teleportation, though. It’s pretty normal for Atemcester!

Inside Valmorra’s Magical Gewgaws, we see a ton of magical items, including large alembics, alchemy supplies, and arcanomechanical contraptions of unknown (but probably not practical) purpose. Behind the counter is a high elf with short hair and piercing, arcane blue eyes. She welcomes us to the shop and, noting that most of us seem new to the city judging by our reactions to the teleport, tells us to take our time. Reides asks if she’s Valmorra, and she says she is! He tells her that he’s looking for an Enduring Spellbook. She seems confused and asks if classes start soon. When Reides clarifies that he’s not a student here, she asks if he’s from Arc-Delia, since there’s also a big magical academy there. Reides is stunned by the existence of more magical academies, but Valmorra just says that the high elves love magic. She figures that Reides is just transferring into school now and offers him an Enduring Spellbook for 100 gp, which he is more than happy to pay. He is slightly bewildered by her offer of multiple spellbooks and mention of a color selection, but is fine with just the one and requests a purple one. Valmorra gets out a forked twig and her eyes begin to glow with arcane power as she casts Locate Object to find an Enduring Spellbook in purple. She knocks over some contraptions in the process, but doesn’t seem too concerned and checks to make sure nothing’s written in it yet. She also casts a spell to set it on fire, just to demonstrate that it’s the genuine object. Reides pays for it and clutches it to his chest. It’s still warm! Kilwin brings up our quest for objects that will let us move underwater, and Valmorra is able to produce one Cloak of the Manta Ray for 500 gp and three Helms of Underwater Action for 300 gp each. We hold an extended conversation about item attunement slots, and Jorah realizes he will probably have to drop one of his attuned items to move normally around Aquos. Ashara insists on not getting either item for herself or having someone else get one for her, so Kilwin buys the cloak and Jorah buys one of the helms and then they trade objects. Reides offers to chip in, but Kilwin says it’s okay, since Reides will need a lot of gold to fill in his new spellbook. Kilwin asks if Valmorra has any divinations, but she advises him to try at a temple. Jorah asks if Valmorra knows anywhere to get a magic crossbow, since his heavy crossbow is older than him and he’s been thinking about an upgrade. Valmorra has an enchanted heavy crossbow for 900 gp and an enchanted hand crossbow for 800 gp. While Briar, Kilwin, and Reides are initially open to contributing to the purchase, the enchantments turn out to be pretty underwhelming, so Jorah just passes on it. Valmorra also advises Briar to try some of the city’s culinary institutions when he asks about astrally aspected foods. He also asks if she knows any druids in the city, but she says there’s not many around that she knows of. Reides asks about spell scrolls too, but Valmorra only has one in stock. They tend to get snatched up pretty quickly! It’s for Glyph of Warding and costs 300 gp. Reides thinks the spell sounds neat, but then he learns about the cost of the material components and passes on it. We joke around with Valmorra about breaking into the store, but Jorah says he knows better and enjoys keeping his limbs. In the end, we leave Valmorra’s Magical Gewgaws behind and split up to continue our shopping adventure.

Session 66

 * Google Document (8-26-22)

The party finishes their shopping adventure and reconvenes Downtown. We discuss that we have a massive to-do list in Atemcester: Attempt to secure the city’s Abyssal Crest (despite having no idea what or where it is), find a trustworthy mage who can seal away the Everburning Longsword and Dunan’s dagger in a demiplane, charter a ship to the Laverathia zone. Reides and Ashara also have dates, even if Reides’s isn’t a “date.” We decide to try to find rooms at the Fish and Spell first, since that’s easy and needs to be done early on anyway. We make our way across the city to Portside. The rest of Downtown is very magical still, although that starts to fade away as we approach another floating, humming bridge.

In Portside, some of the grandeur of the city falls away. While the buildings in Downtown were made of finely wrought stone, the buildings in Portside are made of more average stone, as well as wood and plaster. There’s a faint whiff of sea air, although we’re still separated from the ocean by the river. There are plenty of sailors here, with ships moored in the river and lake. We make our way to the Fish and Spell, which is larger than a lot of the buildings in Portside. A number of sailors are milling about, some rolling bones, some just chilling. There’s a sign outside with the name of the inn and a picture of a fish curled behind a magic wand. Briar points to the sign and says that’s Reides! As we go inside, Reides is clearly nervous. Inside, there’s more sailors hanging out, a warm stone fireplace and a table where a hardened bartender, a man with a graying beard and an eyepatch, sits. At one of the tables, there’s a younger sailor with a book, looking expectantly at the door. He has long brown hair, brown skin, a flowy shirt, brown pants, and leather boots. He puts his book down and beckons us over. Reides says hi! As we get closer, we see the sailor also has a scar on his left cheek. He introduces himself as the strapping sailor that the triton told us we’d meet here and invites us to sit. Reides sits on the table. Kilwin and Jorah sit at the table too, but Ashara and Briar make their way over to the bar. Jorah offers Kilwin some of his firewhiskey to prep himself for this interaction, but Kilwin thinks he’s good for now. Reides takes out the saltwater taffy he bought during his shopping trip and hands it over to his friend, saying he owed him some. The surfacer is happy he remembered! He also has a present for Reides, a bottle of firewhiskey since Reides liked it so much during their first meeting. Jorah likes this guy! Reides thinks surfacers make the best booze, but the surfacer is pretty sure that firewhiskey wasn’t made on the surface. Reides asks if it was the dwarves, and the surfacer consults a book to check. Apparently, almost all fire-themed alcohols were created by the fire genasi, although the dwarves were displeased with this and created forge whiskey themselves. Reides thinks he’s tried forge whiskey, and Kilwin says there was some in the bunker. The surfacer is very curious where Reides has been! He asks Reides to make some introductions first. Reides mentions that the spell cut him off when he tried to say his name before. The surfacer expresses some mild frustration with magic before saying Aske. Reides asks what his name is! He says Aske! Reides says he did ask! Aske eventually clarifies that it is spelled with an e at the end. He gets teased about it a lot, apparently! Kilwin and Jorah introduce themselves, and Aske asks if Jorah’s name is like the elf in the stories. Jorah says Aske isn’t the only one who’s gotten teased for his name! Aske thinks Jorah probably isn’t quite as easy of a target though, since some people don’t read quite as much.

Reides also points out Ashara and Briar at the bar. Ashara orders something, sniffs it, gags, and then drinks it anyway. Briar also takes a sip. Ashara tries to start a tab under Jorah’s name, but is unsuccessful. Briar just slaps down a gold for their drinks instead. Reides says they’re just letting off some steam, since we’ve been through a lot lately. Aske gets it! Some of his crewmates are apparently much rowdier when letting off steam. Bar fights are involved. Reides says Jorah could handle the bar fight! Jorah doesn’t really want to be volunteered for any bar fights, although Aske says he seems like the rough and tumble type. Jorah says that’s not by choice! Reides says Kilwin could take the bar fight too, but Kilwin would prefer not to! Aske mentions that his ship was supposed to leave a while ago, but the storm is probably going to keep delaying him, so he’s down to do whatever Reides wants while he’s here. Jorah says he has some personal business, meeting some old friends in Southside, to take care of, so Aske could guide Reides around. He says Reides can come if he wants, but he’s not going to know any of them. Reides glares at him because he sees exactly what Jorah is trying to do. Reides asks if Aske is from around here, but it turns out he’s from Davenport. Aske says it’s a nice place, especially this time of year as it starts to get a little colder. At the bar, Briar and Ashara continue drinking and a sailor sidles up to them, clearly with a competitive mindset and seeming to challenge them to a drinking contest. They accept his challenge! Watching them, Reides kind of wants a shot too and goes up to the bar. Aske chinhands and watches him. Ashara shows Reides the Meow Meow Shot she is drinking. Aske approaches the bar, and Kilwin tries to figure out if there’s A Plan from Jorah. Reides does a shot and Aske is impressed with his newfound alcohol tolerance. Briar offers Aske a shot too, and he downs it with aplomb. Aske explains that the rest of the crew is scattered around Atemcester. The captain normally retreats to finer lodging, but the Fish and Spell is Aske’s personal hidey-hole, while the rest of the crew is elsewhere. Reides kind of wants to meet the guy whose pants he’s wearing, but Aske doesn’t know where he is right now. He does know some fun trivia about the Fish and Spell, though! Despite the bartender clearly being a former sailor, Aske says the place is actually owned by a retired wizard who uses magic to help it run more smoothly. Aske tells Reides to walk toward the fireplace, which is currently out. Reides does, and a fire suddenly flares up as he approaches, startling him. Aske apologizes for spooking him! Reides says it’s fine, but he’s had to deal with fire a lot lately. He’s intrigued though! Aske also says the plates are enchanted with a spell called Presto Chango, which cleans them when you’re done eating. None of us have heard of a spell called Presto Chango, and Kilwin and Jorah wonder if someone somewhere is getting pranked here. Reides realizes that the spell being described is actually Prestidigitation, and we respect that no one actually wants to say all that. Reides thinks he should try that spell at some point. Aske asks about Reides’s magic and if he can pick up new spells. Reides says he needs to study a lot to do it, but he can and he has. Aske seems to think this over as Reides casts Mage Hand to poke him, startling him.

While Kilwin and Jorah watch Reides and Aske’s interactions from a respectful distance, Ashara and Briar continue their drinking contest against the sailor. Briar starts to feel woozy early on, but decides to keep going until he soon feels like he’s going to hurl. The sailor tells Ashara that her friend can’t hold his rum. She carries on in his honor. Briar turns into a little cat, prompting the bartender to point to a sign that says No Magic. Jorah apologizes for Briar, picks him up, and takes him outside. Kilwin decides to stay to keep an eye on Ashara, who continues drinking past the point where she starts feeling sick. The sailor also seems to not be feeling very well, but he demands more shots from the bartender. Ashara takes off her arm and slaps it on the bar, asking for more too. The bartender tells them to keep their pants and arm on respectively. On their last shots, the sailor finishes his and looks at Ashara confidently before suddenly running outside to puke. Ashara is the champion!! Some of the sailors outside start loudly complaining of the smell of fish. Aske calls this Exhibit A of the many magical things you can see at the Fish and Spell. Jorah observes that it’s been 8 years and nothing has changed in Atemcester.

Kilwin, noticing that Ashara does not look very good, walks her outside and casts Lesser Restoration on her. It helps a bit, but she still feels out of it from that many shots. She asks if Reides and Aske are going on a date. Kilwin thinks they might! Ashara realizes that she forgot to buy a dress and it’s too late now. She’s also very distressed about Raven Rock, but accidentally calls it Ravencroft. She asks how she looks! Kilwin says she looks very nice, trying not to mention that she looks kind of green. Ashara realizes he’s being untruthful but that it’s just to spare her feelings. She tells Kilwin he needs to get better at lying. Jorah does something to remove the rest of the alcohol from Ashara’s system, telling her to apologize to Briar since he was planning to do that for him instead.

Inside, Aske nudges Reides and says he’s picked up quite the cast of characters. Reides agrees, but also says that he’s not any more put together than the rest of the party. Since half of Reides’s friends are indisposed and the other half are taking care of them, Aske suggests that he and Reides go explore Atemcester on their own for a bit. Reides wants to at least tell Kilwin that they’re going, but Aske points out that they can do that on the way out. On the way out, Aske is grossed out by the sailor’s puke. Reides goes over to pet Briar, who is unsuccessfully attempting to escape Jorah’s arms. Kilwin mentions he’s been meaning to ask Briar if it’s okay to pet him when he’s animals, and Reides points out that Briar seems to be enjoying it. Kilwin scritches Briar behind the ears very quickly. Reides asks if Aske wants to pet him, but Aske thinks it’s a little weird. He doesn’t usually pet people he’s just met! Briar gently hisses at him though, so Aske caves and scritches him behind the ears too. Briar purrs in response. Reides also takes Pepega out of the pocket dimension to introduce her to Aske! She strikes a cool pose. Aske says hello and tells her that it’s very nice to meet her and she’s very cute. Reides says he’s going out with Aske now and will be back later. He wonders if he should just put Pepega back in the pocket dimension, but Kilwin offers to watch her. She cuddles up to him, and he pets her a little. We tell Aske it was nice meeting him! Kilwin tells him to take care of Reides, which Aske says he’s experienced with doing! Reides and Aske walk away and, just before they leave the spell’s range, Jorah casts Hunter’s Mark on Reides. Just in case!

Aske walks backwards, a few steps ahead of Reides, and asks what he wants to do. Reides admits he’s a bit overwhelmed by Atemcester! He says he just learned there’s multiple magic schools, which was crazy to him. Aske knows about the Academy of the Archmagi in Downtown and that, in general, they love their magic here. Reides also admits he felt weird about being mistaken for a student earlier. There was nothing like that back home! Aske wonders what Reides’s home was like, and Reides says it was lonely. He explains that he’s pretty sure it was just his family situation and hopes it wasn’t lonely for everyone. Aske has some good news for him! He gestures around at the crowd of people around them. Reides is definitely not alone anymore! He also points out that Reides has picked up some pretty good friends during his travels! Reides agrees that he hasn’t been lonely for a while, at least not since he first met Aske. He says Jorah thought it was weird that he was fished up though. Aske thinks Jorah does seem like the type, but points out that that’s probably the most normal way Reides could’ve made it to the surface. Reides jokes about swimming all the way to land or climbing the hull with his incredibly powerful muscles.

Aske suggests going to the library or getting some food, and Reides leaves it up to him. Aske has something he wants to show Reides around 5 PM, so they have a few hours to kill and can probably do both. While Reides has eaten some food already, Aske thinks he’s probably still hungry and takes him to a place he knows. He asks Reides to ignore the smell, but Reides says he was in Port Valor for quite a while, so he’s used to it. Aske grins. It’s a restaurant near the docks, with an outdoor eating area on the water, called the Atemcester Fishery. Aske promises they don’t only serve fish, since he’s not sure if Reides is sick of that from living underwater so long and his time in the ship’s hold. Reides says that was a while ago now! He tells Aske about his adventure with the Deytrwood salmon although he admits that Jorah helped him catch the fish and Briar cooked it because Reides still can’t cook. He could’ve eaten it raw, though! The clientele of the Atemcester Fishery seems to be younger sailors and other workers from Portside. Reides and Aske are quickly taken to a table. Reides pulls Aske’s chair out for him because he was informed that it’s good manners. He teases Aske about being rude, but Aske claims that sailors are supposed to be rude and adapting to your company goes both ways. He says Reides needs to start singing sea shanties and screaming profanity. Reides does, in fact, scream “Fuck! Shit! Damn!” Aske appreciates it but thinks this might not be the place for it! He offers to teach Reides some shanties sometime. He observes that Reides has adapted to surface life really well, noting that he could barely walk on land the last time he saw him. He asks where Reides’s travels have taken him. Reides explains that he left Port Valor to go east and made his way back there before it blew up. Then he went to the Exeter and up here. Aske thinks that’s quite a journey! Reides says they went as far as Malino’re and that they visited Kilwin’s home in Cowersby. Aske says his dad is from Malino’re, but we probably didn’t meet him since he lives in Davenport now. If we go to Davenport, we might meet him, though! Reides jokes that he’ll find Aske’s dad to tell him how horribly rude his son is. He’ll swim if he has too! Aske jokes that he’ll have to find Reides’s dad then, but the storm is still bad, so whether he’s sailing or trying to swim, he’s “mighty boned on any account.” Reides mentions that there’s magic items that can help and that his friends bought some since they’re planning to go out there. Aske can’t really spend his entire savings to go swimming, though. Reides thinks he’d be happier up here anyway! Aske says he has one question. Reides tells him to ask away! Aske says that’s fine and he’ll leave, but Reides had to do it the one time. Aske asks when the belly button piercing happened. Reides explains that it wasn’t that long after they parted! Aske thinks it suits him! Reides says he made friends with someone who ran a tattoo and piercing shop. They were awesome and also did Reides’s ear piercings. Aske appreciates the color of the earrings! Reides would introduce Aske to his friend, but says they’ll have to see how it goes. Aske says it’s grave times and that he was very happy to hear from Reides that first time to know he was alive. Reides says he was also happy to learn Aske didn’t get caught up in all that! Aske says it was rough for a lot of people, but had to be rougher for Reides since he was actually there. Reides admits it was horrible but that we’re trying to do something about it. Aske says he’s had to get good at reading people from his time as a sailor and realized early on that Reides was one of the most driven people he’s ever met, with a subtle determination. Reides says most people just say he’s stubborn. Aske can see that too! The food arrives, consisted of fish stew, baked fish, blackened fish, non-fish soup, and greenery from Terrath. Reides says pog! Aske is surprised he knows some Dwarvish, and Reides says he knows pog at least! He also tells Aske that he invented pog coffee in the Exeter and that Aske should go there and try it sometime. Aske says fine, he will sail to the Exeter. Reides tells Aske to stretch his land legs, since he was born with them! Aske says he might after he’s hung up his sailing hat. They eat. When they leave, Aske gets up first and says he’ll get Reides’s chair this time. Reides is impressed at his manners! Aske wonders when Reides will forget his, although he thinks it might be good to wait for them to be around some sailors before screaming more profanity.

Next, they head for the library. Aske advises Reides to hold back on the swears, since the wizards there probably wouldn’t like it and they can cast Silence. Aske admits he’s never seen them do that, but it seems like something they can probably do. As they approach the bridge, Aske grabs Reides by the wrist to stop him for a second. A boat is heading toward the bridge and a stone rises up in front of them, blocking traffic on the bridge as it rises up, allowing the boat to pass beneath. Aske admits he was astounded the first time he saw that. He was on a boat and certain they were going to crash if they didn’t stop. Reides thinks it’s pretty cool too! Aske says he’s been viewing magic differently since meeting Reides. Dealing with mages for business and food preservation made him think they were mostly kind of annoying. Reides asks Aske if he’s annoying too, and Aske says he’s sure he could be, but normally isn’t. Reides does think he’s different from most other wizards, at least the ones he’s met. One was extremely nice, but had an amazing spellbook and Reides was just kind of jealous, especially since he didn’t have magic schooling. Aske agrees that bookish types can be kind of intimidating. The other wizard was like 400 years old and trying to kill him, but Reides learned Fireball from him so it’s okay. Aske doesn’t think you run into those every day! He assures Reides that being self-taught means he’s brilliant. Reides thinks it’s really just him being stubborn, so Aske calls him brilliantly stubborn. The bridge descends once more, so Reides and Aske cross into Downtown.

The library of Atemcester is a massive building, located on the ground because it’s too large for a reasonable amount of aerocrystal to hold aloft. It’s one of the largest buildings Reides has ever seen, only rivaled by a few of the largest in Falas. It’s about 70 feet tall and filled with books. There’s several floors, each lined with 10-foot-tall bookshelves. There’s a large opening in the center of the building, allowing people to see all of the floors at once. Reides is amazed. He wonders if this place used to be a castle. Aske thinks it could’ve been, but he’s not sure how old Atemcester is. He likes to visit here when his ship docks in Atemcester to stock up on books for the journey. Reides remembers Aske having a ton of books when they first met. Aske jokingly wonders if Reides thought about him a lot, maybe dreamed of him a little. Either way, Aske thinks reading is a good way to keep sane on long voyages. Reides figures he’d have to, since his captain runs such a tight ship. They discuss her nickname, the Kraken. Reides says that’s a big creature and would even give his dad some pause. Aske says it’s apt, even if she’s not quite that strong. Reides remembers she hit him with a fish. Reides heard it! Aske felt it. Aske says she hates stopping in Atemcester, because of all the mages, but he thinks she secretly enjoys arguing with them. She reminds Reides of Jorah a little bit! He’s noticed that surfacers seem to have a lot of opinions about magic. Aske gets it, since some people see it as unfair that some people can circumvent the menial labor that they have to do. Reides can see that, but points out that some people aren’t strong enough for that kind of work and need to rely on their minds. Aske says some people can do both and flexes. Reides asks if he can do magic, and Aske clarifies that he just meant he has a brain.

Reides doesn’t even know where to begin looking for a book. He decides to try finding a book about tritons. Aske points out that there probably won’t be much written about them, which Reides knows, but he wants to see how wrong everything is if there’s anything. Reides has trouble finding anything just perusing, but finds a book about a guy who encountered a mermaid, which sounds similar to a triton but not quite. For one thing, mermaids apparently have fish tails. Reides wonders if the guy thought her webbed feet put together were a tail. Aske finds something, though, and delivers a large dusty book to Reides. Reides thinks the dust is a good sign! It’s called The People of the Sea by P. Valencia. Reides looks through and quickly realizes it’s random bullshit. It says that tritons are very peaceful and have no standing army. They live in villages with no organized government. Reides calls P. Valencia an idiot and says that everyone is part of the army and constantly preparing for the next nonsense. He wishes it was just villages down there! The book also says the tritons feed the bodies of their dead to sharks. Reides says that’s just offensive. He explains to Aske that the dead are taken to a special place called a coral graveyard and coral grows from their bodies. Aske likes the truth better than what’s in the book! Reides would like to have some strong words with P. Valencia. He thinks his brother would kill them. He admits it’s funny in a way, but wonders if this is why tritons hate surfacers so much in general. Aske suggests that Reides is in a good position to write a much better book than this one. Reides thinks his brother would actually kill him then, but for different reasons. Tritons are very secretive! Aske points out he’d have to leave the ocean first! Reides agrees that Viglis is not leaving his precious ocean any time soon.

Reides is demoralized by the bad book, so Aske suggests going for a swim, either in the river or the lake. Reides likes the idea and thinks he needs to let off some steam after that nonsense anyway. He jokes that Aske could write a book too, about meeting a mermaid. Aske brings up that mermaids are supposed to wear shell bras, not shell armor, so he thinks Reides might need a costume change. Reides says that tritons don’t wear shell bras and those sound very uncomfortable! Aske did think that Reides’s original clothes looked pretty comfortable for being underwater, more so than surface clothes at least. Surface clothes are too hot for Reides temperature-wise. He tells Aske about the cloak the Heartkins gave him and how he couldn’t even wear it. Aske asks if it at least looked good. Reides says of course it did!

Aske and Reides go back to Portside, since the mages might not appreciate people swimming off the coast of Downtown. Reides offers to cast spells to help Aske swim, mentioning Dimension Door and Featherfall (for diving). Reides admits he’s scared of teleporting, but if they die in the process, at least they’ll be together! This gives Aske some pause. Still, they make their way back to Portside and look for a spot where the Mana Wardens won’t see Reides doing spells, since they tend to be the serious type. They find a spot in between some houses where they can reach the lakeshore. Aske doesn’t want to get his clothes wet, so he takes most of them off and folds them. He assumes Reides isn’t doing the same because he’s wearing triton clothes, but actually, Reides is wearing surface clothes and just doesn’t care. Aske, now in his underwear, says he’s ready to teleport. Reides takes Aske’s hand and casts Dimension Door, teleporting the two of them slightly over the lake, a few hundred feet away. Aske is gently freaked as he falls into the water. As he pushes his hair out of his eyes, he admits he understands the teleport fear now. Reides goes underwater for a bit until Aske dives down and gestures for him to come up. He has an idea! He asks if Reides can do that again but teleport them higher up, and then use Featherfall to slow their descent. Reides is down! They swim back to shore. As they prepare to teleport again, Aske takes Reides’s hand, since he thinks he has to for the spell to work. Reides says that’s right (lying)! They teleport again, high above the water, and (thanks to Featherfall) float down gracefully. They hear a child trying to get his mom to look. Aske hoots and hollers on his way down out of sheer joy and a little bit of fear. Reides realizes that he left his impulse control (named Kilwin) back at the Fish and Spell. They land with a big splash. Aske says it was very life-threatening and also amazing! Reides promises to keep Aske safe. They swim for a bit, but as the sky begins to darken, Aske realizes it’s time to take Reides to the secret thing. As he puts his clothes back on, Aske asks if Reides has any drying spells. Reides says he can cast Gust of Wind, but that might get a little deadly. Aske decides it’s okay and Reides likes being wet anyway, so Aske will just have to learn to live with it. He’ll dry off at the Fish and Spell later. Aske brings Reides back to the bridge and finds a promenade with a railing that’s good for leaning on. He points to the main city. Reides thinks it’s very pretty, but still isn’t sure what Aske is actually showing him. As the sun starts setting, lights begin to flicker on, spreading throughout the city and creating a halo around it. Stones lighting the bridge also begin to light up. All of the lights create a reflection of the city in the lake, almost seeming like another city under the water. Aske wanted to show Reides the ocean at night, but thought this would be good too. Reides is impressed and also a little homesick! Seeing the reflected city in the lake did make Aske think of Reides before. Reides laughs, saying that he didn't realize Aske was such a poet. Reides can’t believe he’s this far from home, but it feels good for the most part. Reides is still bothered by The People of the Sea, though. Aske says they need to get him some good books. Reides got a book with stories about sailors during his shopping trip, but hasn’t gotten a chance to look through it yet. He wonders if there will be lies about sailors in there. Aske wonders if he’s read the book and, hearing the title of one of the stories is The Great Storm, says it’s a really good one! He asks Reides to pretend he recommended it to him. They both observe it’s a really nice night. Reides says it looks magical! Aske asks if he’s a comedian. Reides says he is, and Aske chuckles a little. Reides asks if it’s because he’s such a good comedian, and Aske says it’s something like that. Aske observes that if that storm didn’t show up, they wouldn’t have gotten the chance to meet up like this. Reides thinks storms seem to usually have his back though. Aske wonders if Reides is favored by Zasarra, the goddess of storms. Reides could be! He was born during a storm. Aske thinks that’s nice. Apparently, people said Reides didn’t cry at all as a baby, but Reides thinks they were just saying that to hype up baby Reides. He’s skeptical of the idea that any baby doesn’t cry. Aske agrees with Reides and says he seems like a bit of a crybaby. He remembers when Reides didn’t know what tears were when he first cried on the surface! Aske says it was sweet and a nice moment. Reides looks away in embarrassment. Aske says that this is a nice moment too, and takes Reides’s hand.

Earlier in the day, back at the Fish and Spell, Ashara leaves for her date soon after Reides does, the details of which will be revealed in the next installment of Dungeon Delvin’. Jorah tells Kilwin and Briar (still a cat) that he has something he’s wanted to take care of the next time they were in a big city for a while. He wants to deal with it before visiting Julia. He unspools the plain medallion from his wrist and says he wants to visit a temple of the Nameless God to learn about Kievan. He figured that Kilwin would want to come along. Kilwin thinks that’s a great idea! Jorah guides the trio to the northern part of Westside, where most of the temples in Atemcester (and the residential part of Westside) are. Southern Westside is where most of the non-magical shops are. Most of the temples are fairly ornate, adorned with sigils and statues of the deities they serve. One temple, however, is smaller, very plain, and made of black stone. There’s no sign, but Jorah and Kilwin can tell that they’ve reached their destination. Jorah hands Briar to Kilwin (who also has Pepega), but Briar is okay to walk around now. Kilwin’s not so sure and asks Briar to meow once if he’d like a Lesser Restoration and meow twice if he’s good. Briar meows once, so Kilwin casts the spell and Briar rubs against Kilwin’s legs as thanks. Jorah leads the way, with Kilwin and Briar behind him.

The interior of the temple is more or less barren. There’s an empty dais where we figure there would be a statue representing the deity in any other temple. There’s also benches around, but probably very few sermons actually happen here. At the pulpit, there’s a wizened old man leafing through a book. He has white hair, no beard, and wears black robes. He looks up, puts his book in a holster, and welcomes us to the temple of the Nameless God. He asks what our business is today. Jorah shows him the amulet and explains that we were to fight a paladin of the Nameless God to the death. He’d like to learn more about him and also, he guesses, apologize. When Jorah mentions the name Kievan, the priest says he hasn’t heard that name in some years. The priests and paladins of the Nameless God are few but tend to be quite fervent and know each other well. Kievan was a particularly faithful servant of the Nameless God, but fell out of contact with his comrades for many years. Now, he’s lost to them forever. The priest tells Jorah to take heart, though, since he can tell he bears regrets. Jorah tells the priest that we gave Kievan what funeral rites we could. The priest cradles Kievan’s amulet in his hands and tells Jorah that Kievan is with his patron now. Jorah also has something else to talk to the priest about, although he thinks it’s more of a side note. He takes off his gauntlet, revealing the black mark on his wrist. Kilwin is shocked because, despite Jorah’s certainty that he knew that was there, he definitely did not! Jorah explains that he had some unusual nightmares after Kievan died and woke up to this. The priest identifies it as the Mark of the Chosen. Kievan was blessed with it as well. It represents the cycle of life and death and is given to those who follow the will of the Nameless God. Jorah has been chosen! Jorah is stunned into near silence. He’s not really sure how that could be. The priest asks if the Mark hurts sometimes and if Jorah has dreams where he sees the faces of those who have passed on. Jorah admits that both of these things are true, but still doesn’t get why he specifically would be chosen. The priest says it could be any number of reasons, since the Nameless God is mysterious in their ways. It could be that Jorah’s connection to death is tenuous and needs to be maintained. It could be that he has a particularly strong connection to death that’s solidified enough for the Nameless God to take notice. Regardless of the reasons, the fact remains that Jorah has been chosen. Jorah admits that this is not at all what he expected to learn by coming here. He does admit that some of his abilities have seemed off since the Exeter, like suddenly being able to heal with a simple touch, and wonders if Kilwin has noticed. Kilwin did think he noticed some light coming off Quickbrand when Jorah killed the Dream Eater, but had chalked that up to the hag’s hypnotic lights. The priest identifies these as the Righteous Flames of Death, granted to those who bear the Nameless God’s will. Jorah thanks the priest for the explanation of everything, although he’s not sure if this is better or worse than what he expected. The priest advises Jorah that the Nameless God sees potential in him and has given him their blessing, but what to do with it is his decision. He also tells Jorah to trust his dreams. Jorah apologizes again for us having to kill Kievan and says he wishes he were here with us now. The priest says we all have to go sometimes, though, and thinks Kievan got a good death. Jorah says that we won’t take any more of his time and to have a good day before we leave the temple.

Outside, Jorah has a perfectly reasonable meltdown. He really thought Kievan just cursed him or something and the priest was going to remove the curse! He’s glad he doesn’t have to explain the whole situation to Kilwin, though. Jorah guesses he’s a paladin now! Kilwin admits that if Jorah had shown him the Mark, he also would’ve assumed it was a curse and tried to remove it. It wouldn’t have worked, though, since it’s apparently a blessing! Kilwin wonders if it is appropriate to welcome Jorah to the club. Briar finally unshifts and offers some tentative congratulations. The temple doors open again and the priest comes out. He tells Jorah to take heart when the Mark stings because it means he’s still alive. He then goes back inside. Jorah turns back to Kilwin and tells him that someday he’ll be that old priest who knows way too much, and because of that, fuck him. Kilwin can’t even be upset about it.

Still reeling, the lads try to figure out what to do next. It’s a bit early to go back to the tavern and wait for Reides and Ashara. Jorah tells Briar that he didn’t join the earlier drinking competition because he felt like the Amulet of Health was an unfair advantage. It felt like cheating! Briar says that there’s no such thing as cheating or honesty in a drinking contest, but Jorah takes drinking more seriously than he does apparently. Briar realizes that Jorah might have a problem. Jorah suggests going to visit Julia, although Kilwin wonders if Reides and Ashara might want to meet her too. After Jorah explains who Julia is, Briar wonders if she can cook. Learning that she can, he really wants to meet her. While Jorah admits that Julia hasn’t seen him in eight years and can wait a few hours if we want to look into sealing the sword first, Kilwin agrees to just meet Julia a little ahead of everyone else. Briar thinks it will be a lovely surprise! Jorah, very much still out of it, leads Kilwin and Briar to the Wayward House in Southside. He takes them down an alley away from the main street and the neighborhood immediately starts looking shabbier. Jorah welcomes them to the real Southside.

The Wayward House is surrounded by a wooden fence and beyond that, toys are strewn about in the yard. Jorah says some things don’t change before stepping over the gate. Briar vaults over and Kilwin just opens the gate and walks through like a normal person. There's an audible bustle inside the building and a plume of smoke coming from the chimney. Before Jorah knocks on the door, he warns Kilwin that he’s probably about to be swarmed. At the knock, the bustle briefly stops before picking up again. Roughly fifteen kids run out the door and surround the visitors, pointing at them. One points at Kilwin’s armor and says it’s shiny! Another asks why Briar’s ears are so long. Briar says his ears got tugged on too much and pulls the child’s ear a little to demonstrate. A group of children start pulling each other’s ears, but Briar tells them they don’t want ears like his. Suddenly, a voice from inside the house yells to quiet down. The kids instantly do and lower their heads as a six-foot-tall half-orc woman comes out. She has graying hair, a stained apron, and holds a ladle. She sees Jorah and comments that it’s been a while! Jorah says he’s back and not dead! He asks how the gremlins have been, and Julia says they’ve been good enough. She tells the children to go play, which they excitedly do as Julia escorts Jorah and his friends inside. There’s beds and chests lining the walls, and Julia brings us to a dining area to sit and talk. Jorah asks if Julia’s been getting his letters. She has, here and there, but she pranks him by pretending that she hasn’t been getting the attached gold. Things have been pretty nice in Atemcester, but Julia knows from the letters that Jorah’s been through a lot of shit. Jorah agrees and says he’s just visiting Atemcester for business stuff right now. He introduces Kilwin as the priest he described in his letters and Briar as someone who isn’t mentioned in the letters. Briar asks about the food, and Julia offers to let the group stay for some of the beetroot stew she’s preparing. She asks Jorah how the bounty hunting is going, but he says he hasn’t been doing much of that since picking up his current adventuring companions. Julia thinks that might be for the best, since it’s not the safest line of work. She’s glad he stopped by, since the kids love when there’s visitors. Jorah admits that he’s been really busy and hasn’t had time to sail over. Julia asks where he sailed in from, but Jorah says he came by the land route. Julia asks if he stopped in Hommlin on the way, and Jorah says that he did and visited his family’s graves. He asks if anything crazy has happened around here. Julia says the big local news is that Daria found a toad. It’s the talk of the orphanage! Julia’s also heard news about an official in Seaton being assassinated the other day. She’s heard it might have been a Pale Cloak killing, carried out by a group of assassins who leave calling cards with their kills. Jorah hopes the demons, dragons, and assassins all stay out of Southside. He also tells Julia the news about Raven Rock. Julia thinks the Mana Wardens could help, even though she has a fairly low opinion of them. She doesn’t think they could let demons attack the city without a fight and that the Circle would intervene even though they love floating up in their tower.

Jorah also tells Julia he has a question for her. She was once an adventurer, although she retired from that a long time ago, and Jorah is wondering if she’s heard of the Burning Knight. He explains that’s the demon responsible for what happened in Port Valor. Julia’s mostly heard of him through stories, parts of which were probably lost to the ages. She does remember seeing something in a dwarven ruin years ago, though. There were wall carvings depicting a flaming knight alongside something that looked like a rift or tear. There were also carvings of six heroes, each holding an artifact. Farther down the wall, there was a depiction of the heroes giving away the artifacts. There were also dwarven runes, presumably with more info, but Julia doesn’t know Dwarvish, so she definitely couldn’t read them. Kilwin asks where the ruin was, and Julia tells him it was on the southernmost mountain in the Spine of the World. Kilwin also asks if Julia happens to remember what any of the artifacts were. She only remembers a set of plate armor and a set of wristbands. We thank her for the information, because it helps a lot! Jorah is really glad he asked, because he admittedly thought Julia knowing anything was a long shot. He doesn’t want to tell her more, though, since the less she knows, the safer she probably is.

In exchange for her help, we offer to help out with dinner so she can rest. Briar offers to make the stew! Julia tells him the stew has already been made, we just need to serve it. Kilwin goes to set the table, but quickly realizes that Jorah is the only one who knows where anything is. As Jorah sets out plates and bowls, Julia points out that he’s forgetting something. You don’t want to eat stew with your hands, so Jorah goes back for silverware. While Kilwin puts out the food, Briar heads outside to gather the kids. He calls out to them, and a few pay attention. He asks who wants to see some magic! They all pay attention! They start hounding him and ask how to do magic. Briar explains that it’s important to listen to everything Julia says, but also they need to have the spark. He pokes one of the children in the chest. They ask if he put the spark in them, and he uses Druidcraft to make a little squirrel noise. Briar put a squirrel in them! He says the squirrel’s name is Ratataka. Because everyone listened, Briar offers to turn into an animal for them. The children don’t believe him because he’s a guy. Briar says he’ll turn into a huge jackal before turning into a goat, sparking an argument among the children about what a jackal and what a goat is. Briar turns back and admits to one of the children who’s sure he turned into a goat that he always gets those two mixed up. He promises he’ll get it right next time! He also tells the kids that some of them might be able to do that someday, but first they’ll need to wash up and eat dinner. And that’s just what they do!

Session 67

 * Google Document (9-9-22)

As Ashara heads off for her date, she receives a Sending message from Kain, asking if she can meet him at the Teleportation Nexus. She tells him she’ll be there as soon as she can, and flags down a carriage to get there a bit faster. An older man with a neatly trimmed goatee and a cabby hat takes her to the Teleportation Nexus for 5 silver. When she arrives, she finds herself surrounded by wizards, going about their business and whispering about various things. Ashara is generally not a fan of wizards! She Sends to Kain to tell him she’s there, but doesn’t see him. He responds to just wait inside because he’ll be there soon! Ashara tidies herself as best she can before heading in. The central room of the Teleportation Nexus is enormous, with countless hallways leading elsewhere and the bustle of a ton of mages. Ashara finds a desk with a halfling with thick glasses and pushed-back graying hair sitting behind it. He asks if she has an appointment. She says she’s just waiting for a friend! She admits this means she does not have an appointment. From behind her, Kain says that an appointment won’t be necessary. He seems to have dressed up for his date, since he’s wearing a nice clean white robe with gold trim. He asks Ashara if she’s ready. She blushes and puts her hand in his. Kain says they’ll see the sights! The Teleportation Nexus is probably already the best sight, according to him, but he had a favorite restaurant in Downtown when he was in school here, and he thinks Ashara would enjoy it too. He offers to treat her, and Ashara thinks that sounds lovely!

Kain deftly leads Ashara through the crowd, dodging overloaded apprentices, out of the Teleportation Nexus and takes her to a restaurant called the Mages’ Conjuration. Ashara thinks that’s a neat name! There’s people eating outside on the porch, and from Ashara can see, the food is disappointingly unspicy, but spicy food might just not be what the sheltered mages of Atemcester are looking for. Still, Ashara is more than willing to try the food for Kain. Kain asks Ashara if she’d like to eat inside or outside. Ashara wants an inside booth, which is also what Kain would’ve gone with if she didn’t have a preference! He likes that they’re like sitting on couches. They remind Ashara of sitting in a nook in the library! Ashara and Kain both comment that it’s strange not having a word limit when talking to each other. Kain keeps needing to resist the urge to cut off his sentences early. It’s different, but a nice different! The two of them are taken inside, where there’s wood floors, stone walls, and it’s relatively cool, and are seated at a booth. Kain leans back and says it’s the first chance to sit down that he’d had in a while. Ashara asks if they’re working him to the bone, and he admits that it took a lot of bargaining to get a chance to come out here at all. Ashara is really glad he’s here, though, especially after everyone almost died in Raven Rock. Kain can’t even imagine what Ashara’s been through lately, but Ashara thinks it’s still a little easier than what came before it and she’d probably do it again if she knew she’d still be sitting at this table in the end. Kain still doesn’t like that she has to get into these dangerous situations, but this world isn’t kind to drow in general, so Ashara thinks she’d probably be in a dangerous situation no matter what. This way, she at least has some good companions, so it’s a good tradeoff. She also jokes about needing dangerous situations to keep herself young, since she’s pushing 2000 at this point. Kain still doesn’t want to lose her! Ashara is touched but is more worried about losing him, either to exhaustion or his human lifespan. Kain proposes a pact, which gets Ashara very excited about Kain agreeing to artificially extend his life. Kain really just meant that they’d both promise to live as safely and healthily as they could, given the circumstances, to give themselves as much time together as they can. Ashara calls that “amendable” but Kain says the life extension of the dragonscale mages is considered taboo, so he’s probably not going to do that. Ashara and Kain discuss the Kahzdurga Wizard. Kain says that the dragonscale mages are treated as a myth, but he always believed in them. Ashara tells him that he gets to lord it over everyone that he was right all along now.

Kain reluctantly brings up that they should talk business before they get too deep into the date. He’s done some research and learned that 10 years ago, Emperor Karseidon II entrusted the Crests back to their original kingdoms, but evidently, not all of the owners are aware of the nature of the Crests and might just think they’re just powerful magical items. Kain thinks that if the Circle of Eight has one of the Crests, we should be able to find information about it at the Academy of the Archmagi. Ashara writes this down in her journal. Kain has written a letter of introduction for the party that will hopefully get us into the places we need to go. He hopes his reputation from his time as a student hasn’t been forgotten over the years! Ashara says that she thinks Kain is very difficult to forget. She gets embarrassed and coughs a bit, and Kain asks if she’d like some water. She’d like a drink, but figures she should go for some water before more alcohol. Kain is a bit surprised to realize that she’s already drunk alcohol today. She tells Kain there was a sailor who was not a nice man and made some insinuations and she drank him under the table. Feeling a bit defensive, she insists that she’s not drunk thanks to Kilwin and Jorah’s magic, and that in the Vrinian Empire, they would drink wine with their breakfast. Kain, however, starts laughing very hard and slaps the table. That rules to him! He calls Ashara amazing. She says it's the first time anyone has called her that in a while, outside of her traveling companions. Kain tells her to pretend that it’s also him saying that the next time one of them does, because he really does think it.

Ashara tells him about her plan to make bracelets with Sending Stones for the two of them, although she worries that it might be too forward and says she could give them to Kilwin if Kain’s not comfortable with the idea, even though they’re not done yet. Kain thinks it’s a lovely idea, though! Ashara wonders if she should give something to Kain in the meantime, like a lock of hair, but Kain thinks that might be kind of weird to carry around, so she doesn’t. Ashara also breaks the news about Slumberjack officially working with the Burning Knight and Kilwin’s theory that the souls of the people of Port Valor are being kept inside a magic orb and consumed for spellcasting. She wonders if she’s ruining the date, but Kain is glad to be in the loop. He had heard about the state of the dead in Port Valor from some of the priests, but didn’t know the causes, and his next stop after this is Port Valor anyway, so he’ll be able to add this to his report at the end. Ashara is pretty sure everything is fucked (in general), but Kain says that even if it’s fucked, at least they get this moment.

Ashara decides that the business part of their meeting is over, and it’s time for pleasure. She realizes how that sounds after she says it, and she says she didn’t mean it quite like that. Kain still blushes. He proposes a trade. He really wants to know more about Ashara’s background, and he imagines there’s things about him that she’s curious about too. Ashara figures she’ll need a little help opening up, so she flags down a waiter (who is incredibly rude, incidentally) to get some wine. She thinks it would be easier if Kain asked what he was specifically interested about too, since there might be things that she’d dismiss as unimportant that he’d like to know. She’d also have an easier time talking about some things if she knew they were important to Kain. Kain thinks this sounds fine and wants Ashara to ask him things too then. He asks what her life was like growing up. He admits the history aspect is interesting, but he’s really more interested in learning about her. Ashara tells him about her parents’ farm on the outside the main city and how her father was an arcanist for the Empire. Her family struggled for a time to get to a point where Ashara and her mother didn’t need to spend all of their time taking care of the farm. When she grew up, Ashara seemed to inherit her father’s talent for the arcane arts. She admits that, while it’s hard to talk about, her father played a direct role in what happened to the Empire. He was responsible for the warforged, which was a terrible idea. When Ashara joined the Arcane Studium, she was one of the only opponents of slavery of the warforged. It caused a rift between Ashara and the rest of her family and, after that point, she only ever really talked to her mother. In the end, her childhood wasn’t that great! Kain admits he can’t even imagine what Ashara’s been through, and she hopes he never experiences something that lets him. It was a really dark and horrible time for everyone involved and, while she’s glad the warforged were able to get their freedom, she is mad that they took her arm. Kain points out that she seems to have gotten one back in a fair trade! She admits that she just found her warforged arm afterward, though. She was a coward and ran! Kain asks if it’s selfish to say that he’s glad she did. Ashara doesn’t think so! She also thinks that knowing when to run is as important as knowing how to fight.

In exchange, Ashara asks about Kain’s childhood. He hopes it doesn’t make her think less of him! Kain admits he was kind of a wild one, technically a street urchin. He would pick pockets and one day, saw a mark who looked too wealthy to pass by, especially considering how badly he needed money. Desperation blinded him to the Drake Guard surrounding the man. Kain was apprehended and the Drake Guard held their blades to his throat. The man he tried to pickpocket saw how young he was and called off the Drake Guard. Kain admits it sounds super fake now, but that man was Emperor Karseidon II. Karseidon said that, especially given Kain’s age at the time, it wasn’t his fault that he had turned to crime. It was the emperor’s own fault, his failures as a ruler forcing his people to need to do things like that. Karseidon took Kain in and raised him as his own, even with Eurystheos on the way at that point. About a year later, Kain got it into his head that he wanted to serve as Karseidon’s royal mage and begged him to send him to Atemcester for schooling. Eventually, Karseidon did and Kain got the chance to learn and grow as a wizard. The day he left for Atemcester, though, was the last time he ever got to see Karseidon. The emperor was assassinated before Kain finished his studies. Eurysthesos had to take the throne at a young age and, fortunately, Kain was doing well enough in his studies that he could take some time off to protect her during the early days of her reign. Ashara thinks his story is so sad and also so cool. She reassures him that she doesn’t think less of him and, actually, is impressed with his resilience and glad that he has a connection to more ordinary folk. Kain says he was very lucky and was raised by a great man. Ashara thinks Karseidon also managed to raise another great man himself!

For his next question, Kain asks what Ashara’s favorite thing to do was back in the Empire. She says she loved to learn and experiment with creating new magical artifacts. Nothing was really off the table in that regard, since resources were so abundant. She tells him that the totally impractical pod design of the new world was something she was easily able to build on her student salary. Kain can’t even imagine it, and Ashara wishes she could describe it better for him. She admits, though, that that level of abundance and power made the Vrinian Empire’s collapse more or less inevitable. The people in power became overconfident and no one thought it was even possible for the Empire to fail. Ashara says she also enjoyed and misses the people, outside of the imperial family and politics at least. She felt less adrift than she does in this world. She thinks now that she studied too much, but she knew she had a place to go at the end of the day. She could see her mom and sit with her. Her mom would braid her hair and they’d talk about things like work and the day and Tinariel. Kain asks who Tinariel is. Ashara freezes up before admitting that Tinariel is someone from a very long time ago who is very dead, but was Ashara’s imperial family-appointed spouse. Ashara says she didn’t have much choice in the matter, but she had a luckier match than most. Kain is shocked that the imperial family had that much direct control over people’s lives. Ashara explains that the Arcane Studium was how the imperial family found people to serve them and they expected the utmost devotion. They chose a spouse for you so that you wouldn’t be distracted from your work or tempted to search for love or anything you might end up valuing more than your servitude. Ashara decides to be honest with Kain and admits that she truly liked Tinariel, who was kind. The arranged marriages in the Empire also led to horror stories and most people’s parents (who had also been arranged matches) were really dysfunctional as a result. That’s all in the past for Ashara, though! She says she wants to read more than get married, meaning in the past, not that she’s expecting for them to get married, but she didn’t mean it about now, but still. Taking a very enthusiastic sip of wine, Ashara asks if Kain has anything like that, or any skeletons in his closet. Kain says it’s mostly the urchin thing, since that’s mostly a secret at court and some people would probably have a field day if they knew. He trusts Ashara with it though. Ashara assures him she’ll keep it secret but also offers to murder anyone who gives him trouble over it, unless he doesn’t want her to. He would prefer if she didn’t, since he really doesn’t want her to go to jail! Ashara reminds him that she’s already been to jail and feels like she’s kind of been through it all in the past few months, so it doesn’t really faze her. Kain says that even if Ashara’s not scared, just hearing that scared him a bit! He points out that it would be harder to hug her through cell bars, but Ashara thinks they could have conjugal visits. This flusters Kain, and Ashara realizes that she might not know exactly what conjugal means. While Ashara still thinks she could spring herself out of jail with Dimension Door, she promises Kain she won’t kill anyone. She doesn’t want to be apart from him, especially now that she’s finally gotten the chance to make a fool of herself in front of him in person. Kain wouldn’t trade it for the world.

Ashara comments that she doesn’t look good in horizontal stripes anyway, which reminds Kain that he got something for her. He asks if horizontal stripes are okay if they’re jewelry! He takes out a rectangular box that has something he saw in Falas that reminded him of Ashara. He also thought of it when Ashara mentioned the bracelets, but it didn’t feel like the right time. Ashara opens the box to find a silver chain with a purple gemstone attached to the end. The gem is a bit deeper of a shade than lilac and glitters in the light. Ashara, teary-eyed, leans across the table to kiss Kain. He’s surprised at first, but leans into it, taking her face in his hands. They part, and Ashara (extremely red) tells Kain she loves him. Still holding Ashara’s face, Kain tells her he loves her too. He also assumes she likes the necklace! She loves it, and it reminds her of him too. As they settle in to finally eat, Ashara asks Kain what a conjugal visit is anyway.

About two hours later, the main group is already back at the Fish and Spell, waiting for their friends. Ashara comes back first, after going to the library with Kain and making out with him there, her new necklace clearly visible. Kilwin asks how it went! She tells the present members of the party that her date went very well, although she doesn’t kiss and tell (even though she’s telling anyway). She also tells them what Kain told her about the Abyssal Crests. Kilwin prompts Jorah to tell Ashara what Julia told us about the mural depicting the sealing of Alzrius. Ashara thinks something seems a bit different about Jorah’s bearing now too. Reides and Aske also return to the Fish and Spell. Aske wonders what time it is and, after Jorah checks his pocket watch, realizes that the Kraken wanted him back at the ship half an hour ago. He’s in deep trouble! Reides asks if it’ll be okay, and Aske hopes it will. Reides tells him he can say he was helping some poor lost stranger if he needs to explain himself. He can even drop Reides’s name if he wants! Aske says he will if Reides is lucky! He’ll be back at the inn around 10. Reides wishes him luck, blushing a little, and Aske gives him a hug before jogging backwards, waving goodbye, and kicking his feet around to run off. Kilwin asks how it went! Reides said it was good and maybe too good! Jorah asks if it was “Kilwin and Slumberjack in a locked room good,” and Kilwin is forced to explain to Ashara and Briar that he was never in a relationship with Slumberjack and it’s an old joke. The rest of the party saw his feelings from a mile away, but they kind of snuck up on Reides and he’s not sure what to do with them. Ashara asks if Reides told him, and Reides says he kind of did? He’s got anxieties! Jorah welcomes him to the club. He also offers a way he can help Reides deal with some of those anxieties. Reides asks if he’s going to suggest getting drunk. Not this time, though! Instead, Jorah was going to tell him something embarrassing he found out about himself to spread the anxiety around a bit. He’s apparently a paladin of the Nameless God! Reides and Ashara are shocked! Ashara assumes this means Jorah is chaste now! Jorah shows everyone the mark on his wrist. Reides asks why Jorah didn’t tell anyone about it! Jorah says he thought it was just a curse! Reides thinks that’s even more reason to tell us! Briar argues that Jorah is, in fact, cursed. Reides mentions that Viglis is also a paladin. Jorah jokes that he’s secretly been Viglis this entire time. Reides hopes not! Jorah promises that he will never give up drinking, though. Briar lies and says Jorah started praying for him and Kilwin on the way here.

Reides admits he does want some advice, though. It went so well! Too well! Being around Aske makes him feel like there’s a spark in his chest and he can do anything! Kilwin says that’s very romantic. Reides doesn’t just want a fling, he wants to stay connected to Aske even when they’re apart. Ashara thinks Reides has nothing to lose by telling Aske this! Reides is worried that Aske will react negatively to his origin and also the party’s current Whole Thing, although Ashara suggests leading by telling Aske that he’s the buoy that keeps Reides afloat in stormy weather. Reides thinks that is a very ironic metaphor for her to choose! He’s not even sure Aske feels the same way, but Ashara and Kilwin think that is nonsense. Kilwin mentions having noticed Aske looking at Reides when he went up to the bar and is sure that was the look of a guy who’s in love. Reides isn’t fully convinced and thinks Aske is an amazing guy who deserves a peaceful happy life with his little boat and isn’t sure he’s the person who can give him that. He tells us that he was born during a storm, which has a lot of significance for tritons. Storms bring turmoil and change and, because of his birth, people in Laverathia think Reides brings turmoil and change with everything he does. They gave him a really annoying nickname about it, too, which he figures will come up in Aquos anyway, so he may as well tell the party. He was called the Storm Prince. Ashara thinks that rules actually. She didn’t have to grow up with it, though! Reides felt that he was always being compared to Viglis, who was a stabilizing force for the kingdom, while Reides just made a big mess of everything always. He thinks he’s still doing that here, even if Ashara says nothing that’s going on right now was caused by Reides in the slightest. Kilwin also assures Reides that he hasn’t even really been dishonest with Aske. He hasn’t told him everything, but he’s still been himself around him! Reides says this whole thing being sort of a friendship-crush thing was Fine, but then Aske had to go ahead and open his mouth, and now Reides is stuck feeling sparks and pining and wanting something long-term. Briar says that it sounds like Reides is “down bad.” Reides wonders if this is a xenophobic statement about tritons. Briar tells Reides he should ask Aske! Reides feels that he could just ignore the whole prince thing if he was truly leaving it behind, but we’re literally going back, and Reides just knows he’s going to get blamed for whatever happens in Aquos. Ashara points out that he’s not going to stay in Aquos, though, which makes a big difference in terms of how important his royal status is for his relationship. Reides takes out his bottle of firewhiskey because he needs a drink, remembers that Aske gave him the bottle, and puts it away immediately. Jorah offers Reides and Ashara some firewhiskey from his waterskin, to help them cope with the Burn of Love. Ashara says we will do this all over again whenever it’s time for Kilwin to go on a date with Grinlief. Kilwin realizes we will absolutely do all this over again if he goes on a date with Grinlief.

Jorah asks Briar if he’s in a relationship, and Briar reminds him that he did tell us about Erak. It kind of went over Jorah and Ashara’s heads, though! Holding on to Qbby, Briar says that every moon looks for someone to orbit. Briar advises Reides to not be afraid of his title. In his travels, he’s seen that storms often preside near growth and that stability isn’t always a good thing. Reides considers this and works up the nerve to drink from the bottle Aske gave him. He also eats some saltwater taffy, offering some to the rest of the party. We discuss going to the Academy of the Archmagi for a bit. Reides is nervous about it, but Jorah assures him that he’ll probably fit in better than the rest of us there. He won’t even be the most oddly dressed, although he’ll probably be the most blue. Jorah is concerned though, since, if the pattern holds, our enemy here will be someone with a lot of political sway. In Atemcester, that means a very powerful wizard! Jorah suggests that we sleep in shifts, even in the inn. Reides admits that might be an issue for him! Jorah realizes it Is a Kilwin and Slumberjack in a locked room situation. It’s decided that Pepega will keep watch, since she doesn’t need to sleep. Kilwin tells Reides that she was very good and got to play with a lot of children! The Pepega discussion reminds Briar that he has a gift that Erak suggested to him and Miré helped him with. He takes out a glowing sphere that we quickly realize is a wispy, ethereal apple. Erak had mentioned that Pepega can’t eat regular food, and the apple is for her! Reides gives it to her, and Pepega joyously feasts. Apparently, the apple was from the astral realm, which is kind of Briar’s specialty. Reides thanks Briar on Pepega’s behalf, and she hoots at Briar excitedly.

Briar brings up his connection to Erak again and tells us to remind him to tell us the story of how they met sometime. We all tell him to just tell us now! Briar agrees to give us an abridged version, which starts with a demonstration. Trying to hide it from the barkeep because he doesn’t want to get kicked out, he sticks out his finger and creates a tiny rift in the fabric of the material plane, making a small ripping noise. Reides and Kilwin lean in to look and see an endless plane on the other side, looking very ethereal and peaceful. Briar widens the rift a bit so more people can look and tells us to look to our right. There’s a campfire with a person sitting at it, who glances around. It’s Erak! Reides screams out to him, but Briar shushes him. Jorah sighs and looks at the barkeep, who doesn’t seem ready to kick us out just yet. Briar waves to Erak before closing the rift. It’s not his time yet, but Briar assures us that Erak thinks about us and talks about us all the time. Briar has now shown us his specialty! He also acknowledges that, as Reides and Ashara have noticed, his choice of animals for Wild Shape is a bit… unusual. This is because Briar isn’t actually from here! Kilwin asks if he’s from outside Lyvernus. Briar says you could say that! Jorah asks if he’s from Faerenil, and Briar acts offended. Briar reveals that he’s what could be called a planeswalker, from an entirely different world. He’s been traveling around on his own little quest. His planeswalking abilities aren’t really meant for combat, and it’s apparently a bit of a long story. During his travels, Briar met Erak, and then just kept running into him again and again. Things happened, and here he is! Briar would like some firewhiskey now. Jorah admits that he wouldn’t have believed any of this a year and a half ago, but now he’ll pretty much believe anything. Briar understands this, since he’s seen some shit in his travels. He tells us that we’re the first group of long-standing companions he’s had in a long time, and it’s nice. Jorah almost says something about this, but decides against it. Reides kind of gets it. Briar says it hasn’t all been negative, but he moves around a lot. He’s kind of a nomad! Jorah and Reides drink to that! Reides notices he’s kind of walked in a big circle, or maybe more of a quadrangle. Jorah observes his route is more circular, but Kilwin doesn’t think you can really call it going in a circle if it’s been eight years. Kilwin says his secret past is that he’s a little priest boy. Briar says it finally all makes sense now! Reides reveals to Briar that Kilwin doesn’t know his parents, but regardless of whatever the truth is there, he is our little priest boy. Reides wonders how much he should tell Aske about our quest. Kilwin admits he’s been wondering this too. On what date do you tell someone that you’re trying to stop demons from taking over the world? Do you lead with that before the first date? Ashara suggests simply dating someone who’s already involved so you don’t need to explain anything. Jorah wonders how you even pray to the Nameless God. Briar declares it a second date conversation.

We start making our sleeping arrangements for the night. Jorah makes Reides promise that he’ll get some sleep. Reides comments that Jorah is just like Viglis for real and is surprised he’s never noticed before. Reides thinks they might hit it off now, but Jorah thinks they’ll hate each other. Reides thinks they’ll fight over being too similar at the very worst. Jorah still doubts it and says that when two alleycats meet, they fight! Reides admits that Viglis is an asshole, but asks the party to please not kill his brother. If it comes to a fight, Reides will try to intervene before it gets to that point. We promise not to kill Viglis and Jorah assures Reides that he is actually very good at running away under normal circumstances. Most of us get our own rooms, although Reides decides to stay up and wait for Aske to come back. He wonders if Aske would want to share a room with him. He’s worried it’s weird if he offers to pay for it, though. Kilwin suggests offering to split the cost of the room to make it less weird. Everyone except Reides retires for the night. Before heading to bed, Kilwin sends a message to Grinlief, telling him that the party made it to Atemcester. He comments on the floating towers and bridges, calling them incredible. Grinlief asks if Kilwin has seen the airships in Falas. Kilwin admits Falas overwhelmed him a bit when he went there, but says he’d love to go back. He nervously suggests the possibility of meeting up with Grinlief there at some point. Grinlief is very receptive to this! He suggests visiting Saint Vashreen’s and seeing the sights, and says it would be nice to see him.

Downstairs, Reides waits for about three hours, drinking firewhiskey and eating saltwater taffy. Aske eventually returns to the inn, very clearly sore. Reides expresses sympathy, and Aske teases him for living it up while he’s off doing backbreaking labor. He asks if Reides is tired, and Reides asks if he’s really doing this. He says he was wondering if Aske wanted to split the cost of an inn room, but if Aske is tired from carrying other fish around and doesn’t want to, that’s totally fine. Aske promises the relationship between him and those fish is nothing like the one between him and Reides. Reides says he should hope not! Aske is happy to split the cost of the room and expertly does the required math, bragging about his genius mind. They go up to their room together, with Aske leading Reides by the hand. Aske holds the door for Reides, and Reides compliments him for learning his manners so well. Aske asks if Reides will do something rude to ruin it. Reides will think about it! Aske pulls Reides inside and closes the door before grabbing Reides’s face and giving him a big kiss. He apologizes for losing his manners in bedrooms.

The next morning! The party reconvenes downstairs, with Reides arriving a bit later than everyone else. He tells the rest of the party that Aske is still sleeping, but he left him a note. He promises Jorah that he did in fact sleep last night. We decide to eat breakfast and then head for the Academy of the Archmagi. Jorah is able to lead us there. The Academy takes up most of the western side of Downtown and we can spot its spires from a distance. Despite living here a long time, Jorah never went into the Academy. We’re all a little intimidated. Kilwin points out that we have a letter and a good reason to be here and it’s fine, everything is absolutely going to be fine. Jorah takes the letter and walks ahead, looking straight ahead. Kilwin says that’s the spirit! Reides is very intimidated and hides behind his spellbook, but Ashara tells him he’s a wizard too and has no reason to be afraid! The Academy of the Archmagi is surrounded by ten-foot walls and an iron fence, so we have to walk around it a bit to find the actual entrance. The main gate is open and younger students, mostly in their teens, are filtering in and out. There’s also some older mages, some of whom are teachers and some of whom are students there for longer terms of study. We find some signage showing the way to the main office, the dormitories, some lecture halls, and the library. We decide that the main office is probably the best place to start.

The main office is a large room with double doors and a long row of desks, where people are sitting behind windows. The room is lit by lanterns held aloft by aerocrystals, leading up into a tall arched ceiling, rather than traditional chandeliers. There’s also a number of students hanging out and practicing spells. One seems to be working on mastering Prestidigitation and has gotten the soiling effect down, but seems to be having trouble with the other effects. They’re surrounded by a pile of dirty rags. Reides is very familiar with that feeling. We find the nearest open window and meet a high elf woman with long, pushed back hair, tied in a messy ponytail. She welcomes us and asks if she can help us. Jorah hands her Kain’s letter as Ashara and Kilwin explain that we have business very normally. We kind of wish we had opened the letter to read it now! The woman notes the seal of Falas and reads the letter, realizing that we need to access the library for research purposes. She hands it back to Jorah, telling us that we’ll need to show it to the librarian, who’s seated at the desk outside the library, to go in. Jorah asks her name, which is Thelysra. We head to the library and Thelysra tells us to have fun! Kilwin says “You, too!” and has to leave the main office in shame.

Jorah reads Kain’s letter, and the rest of us read it over his shoulder. In it, Kain introduces himself as an alumni of the Academy of the Archmagi and requests that we be allowed passage into the Academy’s library for research in the service of the Falassian Empire. The Academy’s library is similar in scale and grandeur to the main one downtown, but its materials are more specialized in the arcane. The shelves are fitted with aerocrystals and glyphs that allow them to be raised and lowered. While there’s many bookshelves on the floor, there’s many more floating above us, able to be moved down if needed. At a desk near the front, we see an elderly, bespectacled gnomish man in blue robes. He’s reading behind his desk. Jorah takes the lead, telling him that Thelysra said he was the person to talk to. The gnome says she was right and asks to see the letter. He initially reads Kain’s name as Shane Nessos, but realizes it’s Kain and remembers him! He calls Kain a good boy and wonders how he is. Ashara asks if we can go into the library, but the gnome says he’s not done reading the letter yet. We wait as he seems to take his time, muttering to himself and occasionally misreading things and then correcting himself. Jorah and Ashara start getting impatient and wonder if he’s messing with us, but as far as they can tell, this is completely real. When he finally finishes, the gnome tells us we can explore the stacks and to have fun but be careful handling the older books. Jorah takes the letter back and mutters that none of them are as old as him. The gnome didn’t quite hear and asks what he said! Ashara steps in and says that Jorah said there’s none as gold as him! The gnome calls Ashara a sweet young lady, and we go into the library.

As we move around the stacks, we see a lot of apprentices studying and practicing spells. There’s a part of the library where there’s squares on the ground. There’s some apprentices standing inside squares. We see one throw a fireball, which crashes against an invisible ward at the edge of the square. They scribble down some notes on the results and starts casting the spell again. Reides is jealous! He wishes he had these kinds of resources when he was learning magic! Jorah suggests that this would be a good chance for Reides to take advantage of the resources here while the rest of us focus on our main task. The rest of the party agrees and encourages Reides to do that! Jorah asks Reides to try to learn a spell that stops people from dying, but Reides says his way of doing that is killing the other guys faster. Jorah respects that! We split up to do our research.

Reides finds notes on the spell Knock scribbled in the margins of a book. He manages to transcribe the full spell into his spellbook with the materials provided on-site. Jorah looks for information about Alzrius and its original sealing and finds a book called The Abyssal Lords that looks promising. He can’t take it with him but takes some notes on its contents to share with the party. Briar researches god-touched groves and forests and sees the depths of Cyviran Wood, where some of Cysebelle’s acts of creation are said to have taken place, come up a lot. He thinks that sounds perfect for his purposes. Ashara tries to learn more about revenants and finds the scribbled notes of an old researcher, hypothesizing that some powerful entities are able to raise their own revenants that may have unique qualities. While it was just a hypothesis for them, Ashara recognizes that it seems to describe our experiences quite well. Kilwin tries to find information on any magical artifacts returned to or rediscovered by Atemcester around 10 years ago, keeping a special eye out for mentions of wristbands. There’s a Lot of information on various magical artifacts in this library, so it takes him around 6 or 7 hours to sift through everything. He does manage to find a passage that fits both criteria: About 10 years ago, a pair of magical silver bands, called the Bands of the Archmagi, were returned to Atemcester after being lost for many years. They were entrusted to the Circle of Eight, and no mention is made of how they were recovered.

The party reconvenes and we discuss what we learned. Kilwin tells Jorah was right about us needing to deal with powerful wizards! Kilwin guesses that we can’t get Kain to write us another letter of introduction, but Jorah thinks he probably doesn’t have that kind of pull anyway. We wonder if we can get an audience with the Circle like we did with the Emperor when she was holding open court. Jorah explains that, while he doesn’t know everything about the process because the orphanage didn’t really go anywhere where there wasn’t free stuff, Atemcester isn’t as open as Falas generally, and that the members of the Circle have liaisons that people can meet with. The liaisons mediate what actually goes to the archmagi of the Circle, since it’s a big city and if they let just anyone walk in, they’d potentially be wasting eight important people’s time. We decide to do a little research on the current Circle of Eight to try to figure out who we should approach. Jorah points out that Tyrian and Dunan were both rising stars in their respective political landscapes, so we might want to focus on one of them. We learn that in order to keep the seats free of influence, each member of the Circle is granted a title based on the school of magic they represent, rather than using their names publicly. The title is passed down each time a new wizard is chosen for the seat. We also find some notes on the personalities of the current Circle of Eight. The Archmage of Abjuration is measured, calm, and collected. In contrast, the Archmage of Conjuration is a bit erratic and has a tendency to go on tangents. The Archmage of Divination is very knowing and self-assured. Likewise, the Archmage of Enchantment is self-assured and very charismatic and outgoing, as wizards specializing in enchantment spells tend to be. The Archmage of Evocation is determined, outspoken, and headstrong. Reides says hell yes! The Archmage of Illusion is described as, for apparent lack of a better word, cutesy. The Archmage of Necromancy tends to be tired and exasperated. The Archmage of Transmutation is the newest member of the Circle, and their personality hasn’t been well-established yet. They’re a bit of a wild card within the Circle for now. Kilwin thinks that we shouldn’t jump to conclusions, but that might be the rising star that Jorah was looking for. Jorah’s less sure, since everyone in the Circle of Eight has more or less already Risen, but still thinks that we should start by trying to approach the liaison for the Archmage of Transmutation. He’s less worried about them being the most trustworthy or least trustworthy member of the Circle and thinks that our goal should just be to get someone to take some kind of action. Our presence in the city will probably reach whoever’s against us soon enough, between Tyrian and one of us being a triton, which is kind of a giveaway, so there’s not much point in trying to be sneaky. Regardless of the Archmage of Transmutation’s trustworthiness, they’re probably also the least busy as the newest archmage. We think this sounds like a pretty good plan! We make plans to set it in motion.

Session 68

 * Google Document (9-16-22)

We have a discussion of how much we actually want to share with the Archmage of Transmutation and their liaison. We think it’s wise to be a bit guarded, since we don’t know if they’re involved with the Burning Knight. Still, we’ll probably have to play it by ear. Once again, if any of us start talking about seaweed, that’s a red flag for the others. Kilwin thinks that it’s probably fine to talk about the Crests, but that we should probably try to hide that we know what item the Crest is. Kilwin also thinks that if there’s suddenly a warrant for our arrest after the meeting, the Archmage of Transmutation is probably deeply involved. Jorah thinks this a different situation than the Exeter so that probably won’t happen, but if our request for a meeting gets denied and we find ourselves being followed, we should absolutely run for the hills. Ashara thinks a confrontation might get us an audience in that case, but Jorah is pretty sure it’ll be the whole city guard dealing with us before the Circle of Eight get involved. Kilwin mentions that the magic used in Port Valor originated in Atemcester, which Reides thinks is a good excuse to talk to someone from the Circle. Jorah thinks we might also be able to use it as leverage. We head back to the main office because we have no idea where the Circle’s liaisons hang out and we have to start somewhere. Thelysra is still there, looking bored and reading a book. Jorah approaches her and asks if she knows where to go to set up a meeting with one of the Circle’s liaisons. She says we’d probably have to go to the Teleportation Nexus. We realize that makes a lot of sense, thank her for her help, and leave the Academy of the Archmagi for our next destination.

The Teleportation Nexus is still bustling as Ashara saw it earlier, with apprentices carrying tomes, robes, and boxes. As we enter, the same halfling Ashara met is seated at the desk. Ashara is reluctant to talk to him again, but Kilwin decides to talk to him. Ashara warns him that he Will ask if Kilwin has an appointment, but Kilwin thinks that’s probably okay since we’re trying to find out how to make an appointment. Kilwin approaches the halfling, but before he can even greet him, the halfling asks if he has an appointment. Kilwin explains that we’re trying to make one with the liaison to the Archmage of Transmutation! The halfling takes Kilwin’s name, his friends’ names, and their business, which Kilwin explains is investigating something for the Emperor of the Falassian Empire. The halfling asks if we have any proof that we’re actually working for the Emperor. Kilwin offers our writ of passage into the Exeter and Kain’s letter of recommendation for the Academy, taking both documents from Jorah. He admits they’re not directly relevant, but should prove that we’re working for who we say we are! Ashara wants Kain’s letter back, but the secretary will not confirm or deny that he’ll give it back. He examines the letters before chiding Kilwin for giving him documents totally irrelevant to the Circle of Eight. Briar accuses him of committing an act of foreign aggression! The halfling says, though, that he will very graciously see what he can do despite our lack of related documentation. Jorah and Kilwin very pointedly thank him before Briar or Ashara can complain about it. Reides tells the halfling he’s not getting paid enough. Before he leaves to try to set up a meeting for us, Kilwin asks the halfling his name, which is Rendor.

As we wait for Rendor to come back, Jorah explains that we really don’t want to start a fight with him. Briar thinks that might grab some needed attention, but Jorah doubts it would get the Circle of Eight involved. Rendor comes back, more hurried than before. His face is red and his hair is a bit messed up. He needs a moment to catch his breath. Kilwin asks if he’s okay, and he says he’s fine. He tells us that the Circle of Eight wishes to see us! Like right now! Appointments like this usually take weeks to set up. Briar thinks this might be some kind of trap and that we shouldn’t go, but the rest of us aren’t sure we really have a choice now. Ashara Sends to Kain to ask for advice, especially since we might be considered representatives of the Falassian Empire. Kain is a bit confused, but suggests that we be on our best behavior and not let Kilwin say anything. Ashara passes this on, and Kilwin is offended, especially considering what a good social interaction he just did. Ashara attempts to soothe him by saying it’s because he’s so honest and we might need to be a bit sneaky. Reides is scared to talk to the Circle, especially since he thinks they might see that he’s a triton and just go “Hmm, interesting” about it. Jorah finds himself nominated as our primary spokesperson and is absolutely horrified. He doesn’t talk to important people unless he’s doing a bounty for them! Ashara offers to take the lead with her experience dealing with the Studium but ultimately agrees to advise Jorah telepathically. Rendor guides us down a hall to a room that he unlocks for us. Inside is a magical circle similar to the one in Valmorra’s Magical Gewgaws, but much larger. We get onto the circle and very nervously prepare to teleport. The circle begins to glow with the lines of its sigil gradually filling in. Once the entire circle is lit, a wall of light briefly engulfs us and we feel the sensation of lurching upward. Almost immediately, the feeling subsides and we find ourselves in a completely different room, with no windows and one door.

We try to prepare ourselves to move forward, realizing that there’s a non-zero chance that someone in the Circle can read thoughts and hear all of our telepathic conversations. Maybe they’re listening already! Reides wishes he got a physical mask of some kind, but it’s a little late now. Before we can freak out too much more, we go through the door into the next room. The room is tall, with the walls going up for hundreds of feet before reaching the ceiling. There’s stained glass windows lining the walls, and the light of one illuminates a small table with five chairs. Facing the table and high in the air, there’s eight thrones mounted on aerocrystals, each with a robed figure sitting in it. Their faces are obscured by a magical haze of colors, but each has visibly glowing eyes of a different color: red, blue, gray, green, yellow, pink, purple, and orange. Pink appears somewhat shorter than the others, although it’s hard to tell since they’re so high above us. Yellow tells us to come sit. Gray leans forward and tells us that the Circle was aware of our journey from the start. They braced themselves for this once they heard news from Port Valor and the recent happenings in Raven Rock just strengthened their resolve. Jorah takes the center seat at the table, and the rest of the party fills in around him. Red explains that they also know we’ve come for the Abyssal Crest of Atemcester, and that, unlike some rulers, the Circle has known the Bands of the Archmagi’s true nature the entire time. Jorah explains that we’re concerned about the Abyssal Crest but also the magic used in Port Valor, which we understand was derived from something developed here. Purple says that Thorak’s anti-life field was a bastardization of magic that they worked very hard on. As the Archmage of Necromancy, their work is concerned with life and death, and that spell was meant to strengthen someone’s connection to life. Someone rewrote their hard work, though, and created the spell we saw in Port Valor. They’ve looked in on the situation in Port Valor and know the people can be saved if we can find the vessels their souls are in. Briar asks if it’s like a phylactery, and Purple says it’s somewhat similar but a different thing. Briar also asks how one goes about getting this vessel, but Purple explains they don’t know where it is and we’ll just need to find it. They also warn us that the vessel could be a powerful tool for someone who wishes to misuse it. We explain that all we really want regarding the Abyssal Crest is for it to be defended better. Pink says that they already have defenses for it and thinks we’ll find them, well, pretty good! Orange looks out a window and explains that, despite this, the Circle knows how diligent Alzrius’s servants are and have decided to trust the Bands to us. It’s not a decision they made lightly, and we’ll need to pass a trial before we can claim the Crests. This trial will test our mettle, wits, heart, and strength, and we shouldn’t take it lightly. Jorah respects the Circle’s decision but points out that not all of the Crests’ protectors have had the best goals in mind. Orange says that none of them think anyone in the Circle is compromised, but the makeup of the Circle could change, so a roaming group might be the best protection for the Crest right now. Five of them voted in favor of this decision and consider it to be final. We agree to undertake the trial, but want to know what it is. Green tells us not to worry about that since they’re sure we can handle it! Kilwin and Reides are more worried now! Jorah is now visibly panicking. Blue asks if they should send us now. Orange tells us that if we listened closely, we’ve already gotten one hint about our trial, and that’s all we’ll need. Blue casts a spell, surrounding and encasing us in magical energy before the tower walls fade away and we find ourselves falling. An ocean of bright lights fly past us as we fall, but for a minute or two, we can’t see what we’re falling toward. We’re all very freaked out! Eventually, we a growing light below us, widening until we see sand. Reides casts Featherfall when he sees this, allowing us to gently land in the middle of a desert.

The party is now on top of a large sand dune. On either side of, there’s two large cliffs, about 200 feet tall. The only other thing we can see around us is more sand. Jorah looks for signs of life, but there’s any tracks, they were quickly blown away by the wind. A voice rings out around us, welcoming us. It tells us that if we wish to lay claim to the Bands of the Archmagi, we must find its temple but two of our senses will deceive us. Kilwin pinches himself and does, in fact, feel it, so he’s pretty sure his sense of touch is intact. We figure out that we all see the same thing and we seem able to communicate just fine. We all feel wind and it’s too hot for Reides and Kilwin! Jorah speculates that our senses might just be deceiving us in regards to the temple. He also notes that Pepega is better at scouting than the rest of us are. As the rest of us guard his body, Reides wargs into Pepega, who flies up as far as she can without severing the connection. That only gets her about halfway up the cliffs, but all she can really see is more sand. She can also see that the valley is more of a pit, with cliffs farther away to the east and west in addition to the north and south ones we can see on the ground. It’s probably possible to climb out of the pit, but it would be difficult. Reides returns to his body to report this. We consider trying to use echolocation to sound out the temple’s location, but Jorah notices that sand dunes seem to eat some sound. Kilwin digs through the sand for a little bit, but it feels like normal sand and only finds more sand. Briar thinks we might be overthinking this and should probably just do something. We decide to walk toward the north cliff and see what happens. Reides casts Mage Armor just in case. Briar also summons a beast of air that looks like a bird made of wind. He asks it to be a dear and scout in a different direction from the rest of us, and it does so. We walk for a while, and the cliff seems to get closer at a normal rate but it’s still pretty far away. Jorah figures this rules out his guess of a temple that only appears when you wander lost in the desert. Kilwin wonders if the temple is in our minds. Briar takes one for the team and tests another sense, eating some sand. It tastes like sand. Briar decides to see if he can scout further than Pepega and transforms into a giant vulture. Ashara slaps his bald head! This establishes a telepathic link between them, but also she wanted to. Briar flies up to the top of the cliff, where he discovered more sand. He can make out the party’s trail in the ravine, but there’s nothing else there and the pit is surrounded by featureless desert for as far as he can see. Briar takes a moment and doesn’t see or smell anything out of the ordinary. He conveys this information to Ashara, who tells the rest of the party. Jorah asks about the shape of the canyon and learns that it’s an oval, resembling a partially closed eye. Kilwin wonders that, if our senses are deceiving us and we can’t figure out which ones, maybe we should try turning some of them off, so to speak. He checks for obstructions before closing his eyes, covering his ears, and taking a few steps forward. The rest of the party sees him disappear. This is good enough for Reides! Jorah tries holding onto Reides’s shoulder, eyes open, as he walks forward with his eyes closed and ears covered, but nothing happens. When Jorah lets go and Reides tries again, Reides disappears. Briar lands, having started to swoop when he saw Kilwin vanish, and the remaining members of the party close their eyes, cover their ears, and walk forward in sync. The three of them tumble over each other into a pile on the floor of the temple.

Kilwin and Reides stand in front of them, having already arrived in the temple’s hallway. Kilwin tries to help his fallen companions stand, while Reides thinks this is pretty funny. He pats Briar’s bald head and Briar becomes the world’s first cooing giant vulture. The hallway leads into another room in front of us and back into the desert behind us. Kilwin admits he didn’t think that would work and was expecting to look kind of silly. Jorah says that at least he didn’t eat sand! Briar pecks at Jorah and then cuddles up to Kilwin. Kilwin pets Briar’s feathers a bit before Briar decides it’s a bit tight in this hallway (and he’s very large and possibly the reason the group fell on their way in), so he reverts to his elf form. The hallway is lit by light from the next room and we move toward it. As we enter the room, there’s a thunk as the door slides down behind us. On the other side of the room, there’s another closed door. In the middle of the room is a small pedestal with a metal plate atop it. The plate has a bas-relief of a humanoid hand on it. The base of the pedestal has the numbers 1 through 30 in a spiral carved on it. There’s also a small brazier above the pedestal, lighting the room. Jorah approaches the pedestal and asks if anyone has a better idea than him putting his hand on it. Kilwin suggests not doing that! Reides suggests trying Mage Hand first. Jorah goes back to the (sealed) entrance and casts Find Traps, just in case, but he doesn’t find anything. Reides goes next to Jorah, summons his Mage Hand, and high-fives it before sending it over to the pedestal. When it lays on the pedestal, nothing happens. Jorah figures it’s his turn. Unless Kilwin wants to take this! Kilwin doesn’t and is worried about Jorah sticking his hand on there. He worries that the numbers might be a timer of some kind, so Jorah tells everyone to get to the exit door just in case. He figures he can make it there pretty quick if needed. Jorah’s hand fits neatly into the groove and the numbers on the pedestal light up in green. Slowly, they begin to tick down, turning yellow when the countdown reaches 15. The countdown continues even when Jorah removes his hand from the pedestal, so he goes over to join the party. Kilwin looks up at the ceiling, but there’s nothing of note waiting to descend on us. At 10, the numbers turn orange and the brazier goes out. Kilwin dons the Helm of Underwater Action so he can see what happens. At five, the numbers turn red. The hand relief begins to glow but, when the countdown reaches zero, the glowing stops. A tremor shakes the room. As we brace ourselves, the brazier comes back on and the door opens! We are relieved but hurry on to the next room before the door can change its mind.

When we’re safely in the next room, the door closes behind us once more. We see four door around us, each with a symbol carved into it: a person, a cat, a mushroom, and some kind of monster. Each symbol is faintly glowing blue and each door has three black runes above it. We hear the voice again, saying that it rises with the sun and rain, falling to blades and feasting on the slain. The symbols on the door get much brighter. Kilwin quickly deduces that this is the mushroom and touches that door. The mushroom symbol flashes green and the runes above the door turn green. The next riddle mentions something sweet and conniving, and Briar just knows that has to be the cat. He touches the cat door, and both the cat and person light up. The runes over both doors turn green. The next riddle is something that sustains life with death. Many beware its bite and it sleeps by day and hides from the night. Jorah is the first to realize that it’s actually “hide from the knight” and touches the door with the monster. The monster lights up. With all of the runes lit, the voice congratulates us. It tells us that we’ve proven ourselves worthy so far and to step forward to the door bearing our marks. The symbols on the doors begin to change shape. The cat becomes an elf with a metal arm, the mushroom becomes another elf who resembles Briar, the person becomes a cleric wearing a cloak, and the monster becomes a triton. Jorah looks behind him at the door to the countdown room. A clock symbol on that door transforms into a ranger. None of us are very keen on splitting up and Kilwin casts Death Ward on Ashara to try to keep her safe through whatever trial she faces. Eventually, we all bring ourselves to touch our respective doors and disappear.

Once we’ve each made our choice, we find ourselves in a nondescript room. The voice tells us that this wasn’t a test of our choice but our values. In reality, one choice might not preclude the other, but we should be prepared for what comes and keep in mind that there’s a chance we’ll make the same choice we each made here. The room has one exit, a set of doors. Jorah examines them and they appear to be on ordinary hinges and unlocked. We open them and go through into a great hall lined with stone columns and braziers illuminating the hall with magical blue light. An orange rug, strewn with rubble, leads to a raised platform on the other end of the hall. On the platform is a creature with a lion’s body and a feminine humanoid face, fixing her regal gaze on us. The sphinx rises to her feet and introduces herself as Esbat, the guardian of the Bands of the Archmagi. She says that she’ll be our final trial. She rips through space, teleporting in front of us and clawing into Ashara. Something strange happens too and, while most of us shake it off, time seems to speed up around Briar and he appears to age rapidly (such as it is for an elf), suddenly becoming 19 years older. We try to reposition around Esbat. Reides counterspells something she attempts to cast and summons his duplicates. Kilwin says he’d really rather not fight and seems to demonstrate that by whiffing both of his attacks. Briar blights her! Jorah strikes with Quickbrand and Ashara casts Burning Hands. Esbat turns her attention to Jorah and attacks him before unleashing a fireball on Kilwin, Reides, and Jorah. Esbat’s voice rings in our heads, saying that we’re strong but questioning if we’re strong enough to face the might of a world not our own. The hall melts away and we feel the sensation of falling through stars once again. We find ourselves on a floating platform in a dark world in different relative positions than before. Esbat, now on a raised platform, explains that this world was once a thriving empire but hubris led it to be torn asunder, leaving none to remain. Reides attempts to return Esbat’s fireball with his own, but she counterspells it. He counterspells her next spell as revenge. Jorah switches to his heavy crossbow. Briar casts Erupting Earth on Esbat’s platform. Ashara attempts to cast Mind Sliver on her. It does no damage but still disorients her. Esbat flies away from the erupting earth to attack Jorah. The party looks up and sees meteors flying toward us, literally not of Esbat’s doing. We don’t do a good job dodging them. Everyone is hurt pretty badly, and Jorah is knocking unconscious. Reides casts a big fireball on Esbat, and she teleports behind him and swipes a duplicate out of existence. Nothing personal, kid. Kilwin brings Jorah back to consciousness and Briar casts Erupting Earth on Esbat’s new location. He also transforms into a giant snake. Esbat says we may ask ourselves what happened to this ruined world. She explains that this world’s empress sought a deal with Alzrius. It destroyed everyone, starting with the commoners, then the nobles, eventually killing the empress herself. Esbat flies back to the magic circle on the platform and says we’ve proven ourselves worthy of the Bands of the Archmagi. Briar can’t believe he turned into a big snake for this. Most of the party pets his scales for a second before realizing they are horribly distracted from something very important.

Esbat reaches up and makes a snapping motion, which opens a rift before her. She takes the Bands of the Archmagi, silver with blue inlaid gems like we saw in our visions, and lays them on the ground. She says she’s glad that the Circle of Eight sent such capable heroes, since the Bands don’t feel as safe as they once were. The barriers between planes have been growing thin and keeping them here wasn’t a real option anymore. Esbat says some of us may already know this (looking at Briar, who is still a snake and can’t say anything) but the barrier between the astral and material plane is still quite thick, so even if servants of Alzrius come through here, they’ll have a hard time following the Bands to them material plane. Esbat snaps again and we find ourselves in the hall where we met her, up on her pedestal. Briar takes the opportunity to become an elf again. Esbat lays down on her magic circle, and Jorah asks what she’ll do now. She figures she’ll just guard some other super powerful magical artifact, it’s fine. Kilwin suggests that someone who took the Bands in their vision should hold onto them for now, just in case. He didn’t take the Bands! Ashara didn’t take the Bands either and feels like she failed the test. Jorah doesn’t want to talk about it. Briar and Reides both admit they took the Bands, so Reides picks up the real ones for now, even though he really doesn’t want to keep them long-term and thinks Ashara should take them later. Esbat tells us that we’ll be back with the Circle of Eight when we leave the temple. Ashara has one last questions and asks if it’s okay to pet Esbat. Esbat narrows her eyes. Ashara means the lion part, not the human part if it makes a difference! Esbat gives her permission to pet her Once. Ashara does so. She offers to come visit for more if Esbat ever wants to bust out of here, but this is Esbat’s home and she has no desire to leave. Kilwin thanks Esbat for, essentially, not killing us. Esbat says she could say the same and that we fought with vigor. We leave the great hall and find ourselves in an entirely new room- a hallway lined with small piles of gold. Kilwin has a hunch that this is a test and we should absolutely not take any. We hear Esbat’s voice once more, telling us to take it as a gift. Kilwin asks if she’s sure and receives no response. The rest of the party manages to gather 2000 gold, which we split evenly among ourselves.