#42 - The Meaning of Life Report
General Summary
The The Beacons of Hope discovered that the The Enchanted Lamp seemed to be of elven and Feywild design, but they couldn't figure out who made it other than someone extremely powerful. They decided to leave the lamp in Harlin Wyllt's trousers of holding and to not use it at all.
They contacted Omissy, Champion of the White and asked for help to get to Banshaw Edge to discover what is going on. They were picked up by Umorian, the Gifted and after saying goodbye to loved ones, headed into the empty and wrecked city of Banshaw Edge.
They arrived in the centre of the city to find everything either smashed, boarded up, covered in magical damage or dead. There were no living creatures that could be seen. They split up and went in two different directions; Freya Holliend and Alfyn Weis headed towards Banshaw Cathedral and Harlin and Emrys Ddraig Sy'n Ddu went towards The Great Library where Rudyard's study was.
In the Great Library, they discovered that the pyramid that is the arcane focus for the whole city had been blown up. After investigating it, they discovered that it was blown up from inside of the protective barrier that keeps the pyramid in and that Rudyard was inside the barrier when it broke. They were unsure whether Rudyard exploded or something came out of it.
They discovered notebooks and journals of Rudyard, showing his descent into madness after being corrupted by some sort of power from The Shadowfell. Emrys blamed himself for the corruption of Rudyard as he had asked him to rescue Zephie from the Shadowfell and found in the notes that Rudyard had drawn power from something in there.
They discovered a note that was written during the explosion by Rudyard, the most clarity he had shown in any of the writing for a long time since interacting with the Shadowfell. It was an apology letter for everything that he had done, that he was sorry for destroying the town that he had built up, and that he wanted his name to mean something, to be remembered but not like this.
Harlin and Emrys took some of the notes and the pieces of the pyramid to attempt to make a necklace that might help Rudyard fight back, but might also kill him if they needed to. They also discovered that the mad journals had been specifically placed on the desk after the explosion of the pyramid, and believed that someone or something wanted them to think that Rudyard was irredeemable.
Alfyn and Freya found their way to the cathedral that was boarded up from the inside to keep things from getting in. After using a Detect Magic spell, they discovered the whole building was protected by an abjuration spell and they could not find a way in.
Alfyn prayed to Nalena, Goddess of Twilight and the crypt door was opened. They moved through it, after seeing it had not been attacked like the cathedral had. They got inside of the cathedral and found five nearly dead clerics, covered in necrotic scars, and Ellris, High Priest of the church and father to Maura and Breanna Roswall, also injured.
He explained to the group that they rebelled against Rudyard and suffered for it. He told them that Brea's mother, Amara Roswall, went with the groups and he was not sure if it was against her will or not. He explained that all the magic users seemed to be either going willingly or their minds had been altered somewhat to agree. He explained their minds had been shielded from message spells and he had protected the church to do the same thing to try and keep his people safe.
Harlin and Emrys discovered the alchemist workshop had been ransacked, and the head of the university had been torched to death and his office. They found a coded message on the desk of the artificers guild and Emrys was able to figure out that it seemed to be about a rendezvous point and that they were going to ground but he had no idea where they had gone.
Eventually, the four met up again in the cathedral and Ellris continued to explain to them what had happened to Banshaw Edge four nights previously. They also exchanged the information they had gathered beforehand
Ellris explained that fights broke out on the streets; everyone who could fight or be of use was rounded up. Any who didn't were wiped out by the wizards guild with their spells and the injuries turned black, just like the scars on Emrys and Freya. He' explained that he didn't know if they are in their right minds or not, he was focused on getting people to the church where they could be protected by Nalena.
He told them that they are the only people left in town that he knows of and he doesn't know what happened to the artificers.. He says he doesn't know what happened to the artificers but they went to ground and split up so they could be anywhere. He says that Rudyard was planning to march to smaller settlements and pick up any magic users he could.
The group spoke about trying to move the clerics to somewhere safer but Ellris explained they were being kept alive by the church and Nalena, something that Harlin confirmed to the group. It was also discussed that they needed to figure out what the army was up to and how it all worked.
Freya gave the idea of using their pre-teens to investigate the army whilst they distracted Rudyard somewhere else entirely. There was a few objections to this but eventually all of them agreed, they just needed to find a place to draw Rudyard out to.
Report Date
12 Jan 2022
Primary Location
Related Characters
Comments