Episode 50: Three-Headed Serpent

General Summary

Clocks

Recap

Greenbloom 17 to 18, 3033: Year of Darkness

Following the path set before them, the Flamebringers approached the Convergence of the towers in Charles' vision. Tyra remembered that this overlay Charles is seeing might be a symptom of something they had once overheard Zantelar speak of, where every few years the Harmonic Spheres blend for a moment, an alignment of sorts, but Tyra couldn't think of the word. Steven told them a little bit about stars.

As they approached, the party found their path paved with stone statues, standing in a line leading towards a ziggurat that rose above the trees. Continuing forward, following the statues as they became more weathered and aged, they found themselves standing in a village of yuan-ti. Valan used tongues to communicate to them, saying they were demigods from the outlands, come to meet the Tribunal. A yuan-ti priest took them to the top of the ziggurat, where they met "The Tribunal."

This "Tribunal" in question was a set of three medusas who had fooled the tribe into thinking they were the Tribunal. Their servants were blinded with their tongues cut out, and the yuan-ti they served were not allowed to look directly upon them, and any travelers were normally turned to stone by their gaze. So, the Flamebringers were an exception, as Tyra proved by standing under their gaze, unphased. They made a deal: the Flamebringers would be welcomed by the tribe and granted access to the Standing Stones, on the condition they leave the Three to their false godhood. The party agreed.

However, one small problem, when the medusas subjugated the town as their gods, there was another ruler. A priest who stood against them and their heresy. He, in attempt to resist them, attempted to ascend to a form of godhood himself. He became a yuan-ti anathema. He dwells below, and the Flamebringers must defeat him for access to the stones, as that is where they rest. The Flamebringers entered the chamber below the ziggurat, and spoke to the creature. He said he would let them through if they let him out so he could eat those who had wronged him. They considered his offer; who was this "Tribunal" to them anyway? But, Tyra, with Divine Sight, saw he was of ill intent and hollow word, and the Flamebringers attacked, the yuan-ti anathema rising to meet them.

And then they clowned on him.

Placing Stormdancer within the Stone Circle's niche, lightning built up around them as the Flamebringers surged into Manto: Harmonic Sphere of the Tribunal, leaving a glassy pattern where they landed.

Greenbloom 23, 3031,

It's been seven days since the Aurelian emperor was assassinated.

It has been six days since the hearing that put the Fulminarian emperor into a coma.

One week and the entirety of the Seven Nations is suddenly knives to throats.

I've been sent out, with a handful of others who were somehow pulled into the currents, to track down the Vagabond. At first, I thought we were expendable cannon fodder to be shot after the Vagabond as a show of the Aurelians "trying" to get the blade back, but then I lingered on the thought for too long and unraveled it further.

Charles and Valan, Tyra Dawnbreaker, Valeria Bouclier, and myself. Dahlia, too, but her mother refused to allow her to go. A noble, just knight of Fulminaria; a mysterious gunslinger; a diplomat from a house renowned for divine light; a soldier from a near-mythical army; the most powerful wizard Andali has ever seen; and a woman with blood of the dragon, a vessel for the storm.

Seems like a halfway-Prophetic pull to me. So much for living quietly.

— From the Journal of Callisto.

Notes