Session 21: The Covenant's Call

General Summary

Faelyn screamed for his companions as the wraith swirled high in the air, its spectral sword raised high. Even in the gloom of the temple Faelyn marked the undeniable silhouette of a Ymmari Dragonborn.   The others soon joined the fray, jumping to Faelyn’s aid to overwhelm the wraith with numbers. But the Blightstone Orb had plans of its own. Tucked within Faelyn’s backpack it continued to whisper and flicker brightly. With a sudden flash it released another wraith into the gloom.   Elder Triftan had also awoken during the melee and aided the party with a blessing of Hysterion while Aaura cast protective spells to buffet the attacks of the wraiths. Faelyn, once again at the heart of the fracas, nimbly avoided the chilling attacks of the wraiths while returning fire (literally) with plumes of dragon’s breath. Aatavi's laughter thundered in the temple as he tore into the wraiths with his javelin of lightning. Keokan's moon sickle arced through the gloom and slashed into the ethereal forms of their attackers, landing blow after blow after blow.   Even as they continued to work upon the wraiths, the orb swirled with a miasma of angry dark energy, releasing yet another wraith and a malevolent shadow. Shadow sprung into action, winding through the battle until she could take hold of the orb. Placing both of her paws around it, she growled a prayer to Lun Weia and used radiant magic to stop the flow of negative energy.   The orb grew heavy in her paws as its light dimmed. Its power, for the moment, was contained.   Though their night was interrupted the party had managed to escape the surprise encounter relatively unharmed. After a brief conversation with Elder Triftan, Aatavi decided to take the backpack containing the orb outside the temple, where he made himself comfortable on the front steps. Faelyn soon joined him, huddling close to the barbarian and drifting off to a fitful slumber.   His rage had cooled but the Mysati barbarian found no refuge in sleep. He watched the sun’s rays rise over Cormorant's Bay, and heard a familiar rooster crow in the Warren below. As daylight crept over the city Aatavi saw a flock of Aarakocra flying high above the Warren. The buildings surrounding the area made it hard to discern exactly what was going on, but Aatavi had a slight suspicion that they were circling and moving about the area where they had fought the wererats the night before.   Pondering this, Aatavi suddenly became aware of another group of people moving down the street towards the temple. He immediately recognized the Jasper Covenant by the capes they wore, two white stripes flanking a crimson red. In the lead was the female half elf who bore a different type of orb in her hand. Holding it in front of her, a red light swayed and pulsed, drawing her closer to the Temple’s front door.   Hailing our heroes, the Covenant explained that they had been searching for signs of Ymmari activity and had been drawn to the temple. Aatavi stood close to Faelyn, ready to protect his friend should anything go awry. As the Covenant entered the temple both of our heroes noticed how the red light in the half elf’s “compass” swayed towards the direction of the orb in the backpack.   A tense conversation in the temple followed. The leader of the Jasperites introduced himself as Derrel Locke, along with his companions Nikkel Howzer, and Ilya Kadahmer. Locke explained that Ilya had been up throughout the night, experimenting with her compass, trying to refine its divinatory powers so that they might locate and root out any insidious Ymmari presence.   Our heroes soon concluded that these “experiments” had been the cause of the Blightstone Orb’s power surge. They cautiously related the attacks of the night before and revealed that they possessed their own Blightstone Orb. When the Covenant realized that their actions had created a danger and put the heroes at risk they apologized profusely, offering to help and heal anyway they could.   “This is why I need to have access to an orb!” Ilya pleaded. “We are only trying to help others, to stop the Ymmari threat before it gets out of hand! If I could just take yours and examine it firsthand I could make sure that this never happens again!”   While the Jasperites apologized and urged the heroes help, Aaura delved into Ilya’s mind. Aaura could sense honest frustration at having caused problems but also an overriding excitement at the prospect of finally examining an orb. That excitement allowed Aaura to pry further into Ilya’s mind, causing Ilya’s memories to crystallize into visions of recent events. In these memories Aaura saw the Covenant arguing with members of the Matrix Arcanum, who apparently had access to an orb of their own. The mages refused to share notes or allow the Covenant near their examination room, set up somewhere called the Golden Garrison. Aaura could sense frustration, bordering on resentment from the young Covenant member as the Matrix Mages hoarded the orb to themselves and kept her and her companions away from the artifact.   After minutes of back and forth, the Shore’s Light agreed to let Ilya travel with them as they went about their business that day. The other Covenant members decided to head to the Golden Garrison. If their actions the night before had caused issues with the Blightstone Orb in the temple, they surmised that there was a good chance that they had also affected the Garrison’s orb as well.   With dawn having broken already, Shadow knew that she had to get to the ferryboat as quickly as possible. She, Keokan, Aatavi, and Ilya would pick up Omori on the way the dock, where they would head to the Wishbone and keep their appointment on the prison island.   During the night, Aaura had done some light research on Blightstone Orbs. She read again how actions on one orb sometimes caused ripple effects on others. This interconnection was somehow due to the fact that all the orbs were mined from the same place, a mountain on a different plane of existence called the Shadowfell. As Shadow and the rest of the party headed towards the ferry, Aaura and Faelyn took a break in the Widow’s Walk. Aaura spent her time memorizing a new spell until Tiresius  arrived and the three of them headed to the Library of Damarask.   While Aaura may have been disappointed with the small size of the library, she was even more disappointed to find that the books she sought, tomes on Ymmari Necromantic practices, had already been checked out. A quick conversation with the librarian (whose tongue was loosened by Aaura’s affiliation with the Circle of Aquorra) revealed that the books had been checked out by Gavain Entwhistle, one of the mages of the Matrix Arcanum.   Meanwhile, Shadow and the rest of the company had taken the ferry across the bay to the fortified prison island. After disembarking they were processed by a number of guards who secured their weapons and affixed anti-magic bracelets to our heroes’ ankles. When the guards discovered the Blightstone orb in Aatavi’s backpack, they refused to let it past the main gates. Although Ilya offered to keep the orb for them while they entered the prison, the party refused and so Aatavi stayed outside the gates with Ilya while Shadow, Keokan, and Omori were escorted into the prison.   Back in the Armsedge, Aaura, Faelyn, and Tiresius took to the streets. They were not out long before a group of aarakocra, the winged guardsmen of the city, landed on the street and rooftops around them. Spears and crossbows leveled at our heroes, the aarakocra ordered their weapons down and hands up.   A tense moment followed as the aarakocra explained that Aaura and Faelyn fit the description of suspects leaving the scene of a multiple homicide the night before. Faelyn’s fist curled into a ball as he considered fighting back but Aaura realized that the guards were talking about their fight with the wererats. When the wererats were killed, their bodies had transformed back into human beings. The Shore’s Light had left a grisly mess of bodies in their wake. Of course, there would be questions.   Taking their weapons, the guards explained that they were being taken to the Golden Garrison for further questioning.   Faelyn looked at Aaura, and spoke under his breath “The Golden Garrison. That’s where those Jasper fuckers said the other orb was…”   Manacles snapped around their wrists.   “Maybe we should be heading there anyway” she replied quietly.