Episode 16

Ties That Bind

General Summary

The intrepid quartet continues from their adventures seeking out the glowcap mushrooms from their previous excursion where they met with a fearsome medusa and her ilk. On their way back, Jack set up his odd experiment during a summer thunderstorm to try and catch lightning. After a few hours of contemplative waiting, the experiment worked ideally, and his pole-configuration sent lightning into the magically enchanted jar.
The group returned to Willow's Creek, and then to Vale Academy, where they were able to gather their rewards from the academy as well as use their gathered money and supplies to purchase magical enchantments for Maul and Jack's weapons. This process took a week as the mage's tended to the needs of these weapons. As such, the group saw fit to use their newfound titles of formal alumni of Vale Academy to their advantages, using their vast troves of written knowledge in the library for research.
But not before the oddity happened. Tied to The Raven Queen's previous foretelling, it was revealed to both The Raven Queen, Korva, and Elias that a foul plot to re-engineer death seemed to be underway, illustrated in Korva's mind as he saw a strand of death extending to every single person in the school, including himself and all his companions. What this meant, even the Raven Queen did not know, although she posited that someone was affecting this from the shadows, instructing her two warlocks to seek out the cause of this strangeness. Although Elias and Korva did their best to research what this could mean, they found no information that suited them.
The group hit the books, and required much learning. Firstly, they learned that the magical pyres they had been locating, all contained by ioun stones of Greater Absorption, seemed to be disconnected from the Pyreheart temples that they had visited earlier in The Holy Empire. This set them on a more direct route to investigate more into the pyres themselves.
Although there wasn't any direct information to be found, Garroth convened with Belisarius to look into the books of the restricted section within Vale Academy's library. Here, he learned that the pyres seemed to be related to something known as a Vestige - a really old god from time immemorial - known as The First Flame. What this has to do with anything was the best guess of Garroth's, but the connection was made clear. Belisarius, who had also taken to researching this, then mentions he had heard of a location of a third Pyre, located in The Marrows to the north, beyond the confines of the more civilized Ruby Kingdoms. He expressed his weakness as an adventurer, and implored Garroth to seek out the pyre for any information it might hold or that can be discovered at the site.
Garroth also learned more about his tower, located somewhere in the Zahren - the massive sea of blood to the east, beyond the Bloodfens - and that there was a small location where he had once sought transport in a place known as Lost Harbor. Garroth still felt compelled to set out east...
Meanwhile, Jack was making friends with a student at Vale Academy, a dwarf named Daeryn. She happened to study enchanting, particularly that of ioun stones, and was fascinated by the piece that was presented to her by Jack. The two seemed to be quite set upon each other, and as a gift, Jack loaned the ioun stone of greater absorption to Daeryn for study until they next returned to the Academy, which she greatly appreciated.
Many curiosities seemed to be brewing all around though, and what they could mean for everyone in the party remained to be seen...

Rewards Granted

Gold for the glowcap quest, plus extra for excess glowcaps recovered. Enchanted weapons. Formal alumni of Vale Academy.

Character(s) interacted with

Belisarius, Nia, Daeryn, The Raven Queen.

Report Date

10 Jul 2018

Primary Location

Caspia