Arc 2, Episode 7 - "Tapestry, Part 1"
General Summary
When last we left off, Aucienne, Everett, Isadora, and a newly returned Daymon had just learned the truth about Terry Twinklefoot, the lost son of Divine Hunter Lodmus, and explored the caverns underneath the well where the villagers Gretchen and Lars had gone missing.
Upon emerging from the caverns, Daymon was sucked back into the Orb of Imprisoned Sight, and the party made for the Hollow Grove, a cluster of pine trees wreathing one of several hills in Anchek. However, while many of these hills had an unnerving habit of moving at night, the hill below the Hollow Grove did not. Arriving shortly before dusk, Aucienne, Everett, and Isadora found tracks suggesting an individual with a cane regularly traveled among the pines, up towards the summit of the hill. After reaching the crest of the hill, the party set up camp for the night.
During the first watch, Everett spotted a form coming up the hill, ghostly and ethereal. As it came closer, he realized it matched the description given to them of the Ghost of Hollow Grove, a creature said by Old Lady Gimbal to be, in reality, her long-lost husband Lodmus. Waking the party and calling out to the figure, they learned that it was in fact, Lodmus, and that the blind hunter had been coming up this hill every night for the last 70 years to keep an eye out for Gimbal and the boys. The party asks Lodmus if he can help them locate Shazok and Lazar, and the Divine Hunter agrees, saying that a ritual is available to him to trace soul-journeys - a practice that could help him ascertain the location of any individual they have had contact with. In exchange, the party would return him to Grugglefield.
The party agrees, and finishes their rest on top of the hill, with Lodmus keeping watch for them. In the morning, Isadora awakens Everett to explain the magic behind how her Geomanci functions. She describes the earliest parts of her exceedingly long life, how she studied medicine in search of a means to regrow limbs using Tetrian magic known as Gein (“jean”). On a pilgrimage to an underground lake rumored to contain a Titan within its depths, Isadora performed a ritual where she sank beneath the enchanted waters, and used the water which flooded into her lungs to forge her Geomanci Periwinkle. She also was concerned that, due to her part in a great Tetrian war, she may have been complicit in some terrible things, doubting that she was fully and totally on the side of good. Everett says that he has observed a frequent disconnect between intent and outcome, but that friends can help guide each other when the two are misaligned, and that he will do so for her if she does the same for him.
The party then heads back down the hill to a small cave entrance. Within, Lodmus leads them through a swarm of pinkish-purple jellyfish type creatures which drift throughout the cavern. These creatures scan the party, and replay illusions of each individual’s deepest fears. For Everett, this was a picture of an old man in a chair, spittle running down the corner of a slack jaw, eyes cloudy and vacant, even as the mind behind churned - a soul forever trapped within a failing body. For Isadora, it was an image of a deep pit, inside of which was a pile of bones from all the creatures she had slain, which an emaciated Isadora lay, a mask on her face laying upside down, and a shattered Peri on the other side of the mask. For Aucienne, it was an older version of herself in tattered rags, sitting on the ground in Mare-Lavi at night, whereupon an alligator-headed man in a black and purple pinstripe suit, tophat, and skull cane extends a hand to Aucienne, which she takes.
Heading further into the dome shaped cavern, the party sees several larger jellyfish creatures, calcified and hardening, these with more rocky, bony, turtle like shells. Lodmus calls these creatures Morbakka, and that they are drawn to large deposits of ore and wealth, which they consume and excrete as refined metals and minerals. Taking the party back to a yurt at the back of the cave, Lodmus starts a fire in a cauldron, throwing handfuls of herbs which creates a wispy fog of shifting colors, outlined in emerald green, before bidding the party to place their hands within.
Everett is the first to do so, and a series of shifting scenes speed by, tracing his journey back through Sendovia to his early days at the Amaranth Academy, to a scene of him as a baby, moving about and flailing his arms, gurgling and cooing like any normal, happy infant. The scene shifts, showing an orange-red sandstone room where a four armed snake creature picks up a baby of its own kind, placing it within a woven basket. Green eyes appear in the sandstone, and the parent and child are transported to a space in between the various planes of the cosmos. The scene shifts, and a shadowy birdlike creature reaches out through another portal, the parent and child behind it, into the chamber where the baby Everett lay on his back, limbs moving around and kicking. A tendril of smoke and shade reaches out, touching Everett. A bright flash of orange light later, and the small snake figure in the mists behind is gone. In the crib, the baby Everett lays alive, but almost completely motionless.
Next, Aucienne reaches inside the cauldron, and a series of scenes emerges. In one, Aucienne is speaking with her Uncle Dirk as a child about some business with the Chamber of Plenty. Her uncle delegates some work to her, referring to her as Aucienne Ledet (“Le-day”) and the Ledet Family. The next scene is of her in a gambling den in a dirty town (the same one from her fear vision earlier), with gross displays of hedonism and extravagance. The next, she is kicked out of the gambling den, now without her servants, luxurious clothing, or jewelry, where she meets a skinny bald man. Together, they do odd jobs on the streets, but a flash to another scene where the man is scolding Aucienne with a look of hurt and disappointment on his face. Another scene of Aucienne, skinny and hungry, approaching her rich, successful cousin with an outstretched hand, the look of pity on his face steeling Aucienne’s resolve. In the final scene, Aucienne is studying in a magic shop before heading out towards distant Biggityburg and Sal Senin. Throughout each of these scenes, a scale is shown, with a pile of gold on one side being outweighed by an empty scale on the other side. With each flash, the pile of gold shrinks, eventually turning to silver pieces, and then just a handful of copper. When the pile of coins is only a single copper piece, the scale finally tips over to the side of the coin.
Upon emerging from the caverns, Daymon was sucked back into the Orb of Imprisoned Sight, and the party made for the Hollow Grove, a cluster of pine trees wreathing one of several hills in Anchek. However, while many of these hills had an unnerving habit of moving at night, the hill below the Hollow Grove did not. Arriving shortly before dusk, Aucienne, Everett, and Isadora found tracks suggesting an individual with a cane regularly traveled among the pines, up towards the summit of the hill. After reaching the crest of the hill, the party set up camp for the night.
During the first watch, Everett spotted a form coming up the hill, ghostly and ethereal. As it came closer, he realized it matched the description given to them of the Ghost of Hollow Grove, a creature said by Old Lady Gimbal to be, in reality, her long-lost husband Lodmus. Waking the party and calling out to the figure, they learned that it was in fact, Lodmus, and that the blind hunter had been coming up this hill every night for the last 70 years to keep an eye out for Gimbal and the boys. The party asks Lodmus if he can help them locate Shazok and Lazar, and the Divine Hunter agrees, saying that a ritual is available to him to trace soul-journeys - a practice that could help him ascertain the location of any individual they have had contact with. In exchange, the party would return him to Grugglefield.
The party agrees, and finishes their rest on top of the hill, with Lodmus keeping watch for them. In the morning, Isadora awakens Everett to explain the magic behind how her Geomanci functions. She describes the earliest parts of her exceedingly long life, how she studied medicine in search of a means to regrow limbs using Tetrian magic known as Gein (“jean”). On a pilgrimage to an underground lake rumored to contain a Titan within its depths, Isadora performed a ritual where she sank beneath the enchanted waters, and used the water which flooded into her lungs to forge her Geomanci Periwinkle. She also was concerned that, due to her part in a great Tetrian war, she may have been complicit in some terrible things, doubting that she was fully and totally on the side of good. Everett says that he has observed a frequent disconnect between intent and outcome, but that friends can help guide each other when the two are misaligned, and that he will do so for her if she does the same for him.
The party then heads back down the hill to a small cave entrance. Within, Lodmus leads them through a swarm of pinkish-purple jellyfish type creatures which drift throughout the cavern. These creatures scan the party, and replay illusions of each individual’s deepest fears. For Everett, this was a picture of an old man in a chair, spittle running down the corner of a slack jaw, eyes cloudy and vacant, even as the mind behind churned - a soul forever trapped within a failing body. For Isadora, it was an image of a deep pit, inside of which was a pile of bones from all the creatures she had slain, which an emaciated Isadora lay, a mask on her face laying upside down, and a shattered Peri on the other side of the mask. For Aucienne, it was an older version of herself in tattered rags, sitting on the ground in Mare-Lavi at night, whereupon an alligator-headed man in a black and purple pinstripe suit, tophat, and skull cane extends a hand to Aucienne, which she takes.
Heading further into the dome shaped cavern, the party sees several larger jellyfish creatures, calcified and hardening, these with more rocky, bony, turtle like shells. Lodmus calls these creatures Morbakka, and that they are drawn to large deposits of ore and wealth, which they consume and excrete as refined metals and minerals. Taking the party back to a yurt at the back of the cave, Lodmus starts a fire in a cauldron, throwing handfuls of herbs which creates a wispy fog of shifting colors, outlined in emerald green, before bidding the party to place their hands within.
Everett is the first to do so, and a series of shifting scenes speed by, tracing his journey back through Sendovia to his early days at the Amaranth Academy, to a scene of him as a baby, moving about and flailing his arms, gurgling and cooing like any normal, happy infant. The scene shifts, showing an orange-red sandstone room where a four armed snake creature picks up a baby of its own kind, placing it within a woven basket. Green eyes appear in the sandstone, and the parent and child are transported to a space in between the various planes of the cosmos. The scene shifts, and a shadowy birdlike creature reaches out through another portal, the parent and child behind it, into the chamber where the baby Everett lay on his back, limbs moving around and kicking. A tendril of smoke and shade reaches out, touching Everett. A bright flash of orange light later, and the small snake figure in the mists behind is gone. In the crib, the baby Everett lays alive, but almost completely motionless.
Next, Aucienne reaches inside the cauldron, and a series of scenes emerges. In one, Aucienne is speaking with her Uncle Dirk as a child about some business with the Chamber of Plenty. Her uncle delegates some work to her, referring to her as Aucienne Ledet (“Le-day”) and the Ledet Family. The next scene is of her in a gambling den in a dirty town (the same one from her fear vision earlier), with gross displays of hedonism and extravagance. The next, she is kicked out of the gambling den, now without her servants, luxurious clothing, or jewelry, where she meets a skinny bald man. Together, they do odd jobs on the streets, but a flash to another scene where the man is scolding Aucienne with a look of hurt and disappointment on his face. Another scene of Aucienne, skinny and hungry, approaching her rich, successful cousin with an outstretched hand, the look of pity on his face steeling Aucienne’s resolve. In the final scene, Aucienne is studying in a magic shop before heading out towards distant Biggityburg and Sal Senin. Throughout each of these scenes, a scale is shown, with a pile of gold on one side being outweighed by an empty scale on the other side. With each flash, the pile of gold shrinks, eventually turning to silver pieces, and then just a handful of copper. When the pile of coins is only a single copper piece, the scale finally tips over to the side of the coin.
Report Date
30 May 2025
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