S1 E34: Dropping the First Anchor
General Summary
In which the gang encounters the race called the Stardonyx, and seats about saving the world
- Returning from their successes in the arena on the Feast of Thanks, the gang completes the Anchoring ritual - moonlight passes through the gem of the meteor staff of the bat swarm onto the Pillar of Winter, which begins to slowly and inexorably sink into the ground, opening a swirling portal of light in front of the pillar that blocks it from clear view.
- A pair of one-eyed, knowledge eating creatures come through the breach almost immediately: Nothics, attracted to spaces where the barriers between planes are thin. When they are dispatched, the information they pried from Mae - that she is the youngest of 7 siblings - becomes general knowledge.
- Claude is sent through the portal and finds a strange low-gravity mud world on the other side, and an even stranger pair of aquamarine-skinned humanoids sitting in six-legged folding chairs and donning large fishbowls over their heads, their language a series of unintelligible clicks and pulses. Claude threatens them in his fashion but one of them simply puts Claude on his shoulder and crosses over, where they meet immediate opposition from the gang. In addition to not expecting a fight, they seem to have not even expected to be where they ended up, instead thinking they would be emerging on Tergaith's lavender moon.
- One uses a spell to teleport away - though it would seem, only a short distance. The other is knocked unconscious but converses readily once awakened with a combination of Comprehend Languages and Tongues. While they are evidently perfectly willing to conquer Tergaith, they would prefer to relocate to its moon, which they were promised by an Amethyst Dragon identified as Quindarin, some generations before. They call themselves the Stardonyx, beings that could perhaps be researched further from what remained of Quindarin's notes, most of which that survive are now in Willow Candler's possession. The long and short of it is that Borem, the Lake of Boiling Mud, has eaten so much of their world that it's losing its gravitational cohesion. Quindarin evidently, literally, promised them the moon. But he's not on their world - so where is he?
- At the same time, several party members cross over to the other side, finding that the ruins the Stardonyx mentioned are apparently really a couple of six-legged folding chairs and a wooden picnic table, carved with elaborate decorations and a manufacturer's chop that identifies them as having come from the Free City of Marleven. He/she/it mentions other ruins as well, a feather bed, some distance away. Mae grabs one of the six-legged folding chairs, and crosses back over to Tergaith; the Stardonyx returns to his strange, muddy world.
- The ritual complete, the portal closes. The whereabouts of the second Stardonyx are unknown but wherever it is, it's stranded here.
Rewards Granted
- 6-legged metal folding chair
Missions/Quests Completed
- Meet the Stardonyx
- Quindarin's Hidden Identity
Character(s) interacted with
(unpronounceable) and (unpronounceable), two scouts from the world of the Stardonyx
Comments