Session 88 - Retreat to the Raven

General Summary

24th Planting

Having just escaped the Glass Castle with minutes to spare, the party gathered on the Bridge to Nowhere and looked around in surprise. The sky had already begun to lighten and color with reds, pinks, and purple. Realizing that most of the party was still standing on the spectral portion of the bridge, they scrambled across to the metal portion and onto solid ground. It was good that they did, a moment later the glass doors slammed shut with a final boom and as the sun breached the horizon, the entire castle melted away into dreams and mist.
Helenwye had already taken off and was flitting around Denye's head, chirping happily. "Well ain't that always the way," said Janora shaking her head and turning to greet Forest. She stopped in her tracks when she saw the ragdoll and with hands on hips glared at the offending object. Over her shoulder she asked, "Can someone with mage hand please pick that thing up and get it away from Forest and the Egg?"
Ell stepped up next to the witch and with a gesture lifted the rag doll out of the bag and sent it flying to land on the ground some way away. Janora advanced on the doll, firing Firebolts continuously until it was a pile of dust and scorched teeth. Crouching down she examined the teeth, even taking time to pull out her obsidian tool to stir them around. Holding a hand above them, the witch cast Remove Curse. Looking up she asked, "Ranunkel, do you think you could open a hole so we can bury these?"
"Of course," agreed Ranunkel, "but what was that? It looked like a doll, but you all freaked out about it?" Without waiting for an answer the druid came over and with a few quick gestures opened a small hole in the stone. Janora used her tool to knock them inside and with a nod, commanded Ranunkel to close the hole over it.
Getting back to her feet, Janora explained, "It's a cursed object that Ell picked up while we were exploring an island temple a few weeks ago."
"But you burned it to ash already," protested Ell, "how did it get here and why is it following us?"
"It's clearly cursed," pointed out Jilken.
"Well," said Janora with a sigh, "I'm hoping that that spell broke whatever curse was on it and we won't have to worry about it again. Now, what are we going to do? As I mentioned before, I really think we should avoid the village...I don't want to encourage locals to try going inside thinking it's safe."
"That didn't seem to stop you all," said Ranunkel, "why in Tak's name would you go into the Crystal Citadel?"
Denye shrugged, "We're special and we needed to. Also welcome back Ranunkel, it's good to see you."
"Indeed," said Ell with a chuckle, "way to come through in the clutch, excellent timing as we all know."
"The Great Maker knew when I was needed," said Ranunkel solemnly, "but you all look wrecked. Should we set up a tent here so everyone can get some rest?"
"Are we done here?" asked Denye, "I could just teleport us back to Wexwood."
"We have to go back down first," said Jilken, "we left Ironheart and the other animals near the trailhead."
"That's right," agreed the wizard, "Janora, do you think Forest would be able to ferry us back down?"
Before the witch could reply, the dogesus barked happily. Janora laughed, "I guess that's your answer. Who wants to go first? I'm going to put up a Tiny Hut over the firepit and sit for a few minutes."
"Good," said Ranunkel, "you can explain why you would go into such a place."
"There was a bell," began Ell as they walked over to the sheltered alcove as Forest took off with Jilken and Denye.

---

Sometime later and much further north, there was a soft whoop of air within the circle chamber of the Wayfinders Archive and suddenly, the small 20 ft square room was quite full with six people and five animals. Ell was closest to the door and opening it quickly fell into the hall beyond.
From there, the team headed for the exit as quickly as possible. Several of the animals were not happy with the corridors, but all of them eventually were persuaded to move. Along the way they met the Wayfinder Minorus Shalana Emorin. She was a little shocked to see the small parade, but offered a weak smile.
Before the librarian could say anything, Denye said, "Sorry, we couldn't just leave our mounts behind, they would have starved. We'll get them outside as quickly as we can."
"It's fine," said Shalana looking behind the wizard. She winced as one of the horses dropped a steaming pile on the carpet, but repeated, "it's fine, it's fine."
"Not again," said Deney following her gaze. With a flick of her talon she used Prestidigitation to vanish the horse droppings. "I wonder if I could create a spell to keep them from voiding themselves," she muttered to herself. Turning back to Shalana she said, "We'll take care of it and make sure that they don't leave behind any surprises."
Waving goodbye to the Wayfinder, the strange parade continued out through the Keep. They continued to get odd looks but no one stopped them as they made their way to the main doors. Exiting the party discovered the next challenge, the stairs that led down into the city. Luckily, this one Jilken knew how to deal with it and led the party over to heavy cranes that were set near the edge.
They had to blindfold most of the animals but eventually they got everyone loaded onto one of the wide platforms and were lowered to the ground with ease. As they approached the Restless Raven they saw that the ground had been broken for the new extension and several of the basements were beginning to take shape.
After getting the animals settled, the party headed inside the inn and went up to their rooms. Ell stopped at the bar long enough to speak to Hennalor Zinfir and ordered breakfast. The bartender was happy to see the young man and passed over a letterswed that had come in for Ell.
Over the meal, Ranunkel told the others about his experience, "I found, well I guess you would call it a temple to Tak, or maybe shrine would be a better word. Either way, it was a communion unlike any I had ever experienced. You all know that I have struggled with the belief that I'm not terribly useful."
"And we keep telling you that that is not true," interjected Ell, "there have been several scrapes that we likely wouldn't have survived if you were not with us."
"I know," said Ranunkel, pulling on his beard, "but when one is told they are useless everyday for the majority of your life, it becomes ingrained and hard to dispute. But I think those days are over, I was reforged by the Allhammer in a ritual I have only heard rumor of, something for only those who are blessed with Tak's highest regard. More importantly, He gave me the knowledge to craft a new stone of connection. I will need your help Denye, but it should be easier than trying to figure out how to repair broken shards."
"That sounds amazing," said Denye, "I would love to hear all about this ritual as well...if it's something you can talk about."
"I can try," began Ranunkel before being interrupted by a yawn, "but maybe it should wait. I spent the entire night climbing the mountain to get to you all and I need to go turn into a rock for a while."
Ell nodded, "I need a nap as well, let's adjourn and get some rack time. We'll all think better with clearer heads." That seemed like a good idea and everyone scattered to their various rooms.

---

Some hours later Ell wandered into their sitting room where he found Ranunkle teaching Denye to play Thud. It was similar to other games that Denye had played, but there were some complex rules that kept tripping her up. She looked up at Ell with a hint of relief and asked, "What's that you have there, Ell?"
He looked down at the paper in his hand, "Oh yes, I heard from my inventor, he's come up with a tower design that includes housing...I hadn't even thought about housing. He's also estimating four towers between Port Frost and Wexwood. His projection is that we'll have a working channel by the first of Sunpeak."
"I should finish writing out the codebook," said Denye, "but where are you going to find people to work the towers?"
"There are lots of people," said Ell, blithely, "I'm sure we can figure something out. I should find someone to arrange it all."
"Actually," said Tear, coming in, pushing a cart laden with food, "I has idea about that, maybe my clan could help out. If dey has good food and warm, they no get into trouble. Dey can watch lights and pull levers."
"That is a absolutely wonderful idea," said Ell beaming
"What does?" asked Janora, coming into the room, drawn by the smell of food.
"Well good morning," said Ell, giving the witch a winsome smile, "or I suppose good afternoon. We were talking about having Tear's clan working the message towers I'm building."
"That is a good idea," agreed Janora, piling food on a plate and taking it over to the table. "So I do need to return to my cottage before nightfall, but I don't expect to be gone for more than a couple of days. Before I go, do we want to go through everything we've acquired? I feel we've picked up stuff that we've forgotten about."
After going through things, it was really just the loot from the glass castle. Four of the rings were simply gold rings set with various stones, worth about 200gp a piece. The fifth ring was copper and held a small quartz stone that glowed with an inner light and gave off a magical aura. The leather scroll case contained spell scrolls for both Conjure Minor Elemental and Hypnotic Pattern.
Denye took a few minutes to ritually cast Identify on the copper ring and announced that it was a ring of Spell Storing. That led to a conversation about who could wear it and who wasn't already fully attuned to items. In the end they decided to give it to Tear.
Realizing that the afternoon was fleeting, Janora stood up, "I need to go, I'll be back in three days." As she disappeared out the door she sent over the earrings, "Call me if anything comes up, but it's the full moon and I need to be in Baymoon."
"How can we reach her if she is that far away?" asked Ranunkel.
"Oh that's right," said Denye, "I haven't given you the upgrade." Rummaging in a pocket she pulled out a second smaller ring. "Slip that onto your earring and it will extend its range to the entire plane," explained Denye, preening. She went on, "When I have some time I think I can get it to cross planes, but there are other things on my list."
Turning to Ell she asked, "Speaking of my list, do you think you could help me find some ivory sticks?"
"Ivory?" asked Ell, confused.
Denye nodded, "Do you remember the spell Legend Lore?"
Jilken leaned forward, "That was the spell the cat priest cast at the crater on the Savannah."
"It was," agreed Denye, "I've worked out my own version of it, but I'll need four pieces of ivory about so long." She held out her talons about 5-6" apart.
"Oh, maybe you could use it to figure out where the other half of Milani's mace is," said Ell excitedly, "Of course I'll help you find some ivory." He thought for a moment and said, "There are quite a few ivory statues around the palace...we could always break off a few fingers." At Denye's wince, he hurried to add, "I'm sure there is some knick-knack or another at the house in Duskcairn. We might also be able to find something around here. There are shops for such things, if not here then in Haven."
"Speaking of spells," said Jilken, "I was hoping you would lend me your spell book, Denye. I'm not anywhere near as powerful as you, but I feel like I'm not using this new power as efficiently as I could."
"Of course!" crowed Denye, "I'd love to help you, Jilken, I always enjoy talking about magic."

25th Planting

Janora woke up to the sun in her eyes and for a moment was very confused. She was in her bed, in her room, in the cottage, but her window faced south so if the sun was shining through, it must be much later than she usually slept. "Well that's probably because you didn't get to bed till almost dawn," the witch muttered to herself. Throwing back the bedclothes Janora sat up and considered what needed doing.
She had arrived last night on the wings of a storm and went straight to the village to see how her charges were handling it. Most of the village was currently asleep and more importantly no one had died since her last visit. Valki was waiting for Janora at the village hall having gathered the required herbs to brew the next batch of the suppression potion. That had taken much of the night and afterwards Janora walked the boundary of the spell keeping the loup-garou contained. The witch did three circuits of the spell, reinforcing and energizing it, before she finally climbed into Forest's saddle and headed for the cabin.
Her own bed had been quite comfortable and for half a moment, Janora considered that she could take an afternoon off, but her eye fell on the new ring on her finger. Recalling the conversation she had had with Helena, she was suddenly afire with curiosity. She had been searching for the answer to this curse for so long or at the very least figure out how Nora's spell had broken.
Dressing quickly, Janora almost flew down the stairs and with a flick of her wrist lit the candles around the room. She went into the workroom but returned quickly with a small stepladder. Placing it in front of the hearth, she stepped up and drew off the cloth covering the large mirror. "Right," she muttered before rapping on the glass with a knuckle. In a louder voice she called, "Wake up...I got the ring."
A moment later a face seemed to melt into existence and when the witch held up the hand to show the ring, the mirror servant smiled. "The Crowcaller ring you bear, oh Crone so fair. How may I please, your will to appease?"
"Give me whatever it is you are hiding," commanded Janora.
The mirror slave froze for a moment but said, "Your pardon I must beseech, but I must hear the speech."
Putting her hands on her hips, she said, "Mirror, mirror who holds a djinn, Return to me that which lies within.”
That seemed to please the spirit and it nodded before vanishing, as it did the mirror itself shivered and suddenly there was a square space beyond. There was a thick book within and Janora reached for it, her hand pushing through the surface of the mirror like water. Withdrawing it, the witch saw it was more a folio than an actual book. The outer case was of a black leather that glittered under strong light. It had been worked by a competent, yet inexpert hand and there were borders of wolf paw prints as well as a large triskele knot on front and back.
Taking the book into the work room, it had better light in the afternoon, Janora laid the book on the table. Undoing the clasps she opened to the first page, which seemed to be a letter or foreword from the founder of the Crowcaller line. The book contained quite a bit of information, but what it did not contain was the spell. Nora feared that if the actual spell instructions were left then someone could use it to break said spell. But a time would come when the spell expired and so the elder witch had organized this journal in such a way that any competent witch of her line would either understand what had been done...or one hopes, perhaps with additional knowledge, find a way to end the curse entirely.
Janora sighed and leaned back, rubbing her temples. This wasn't going to be as easy as she had hoped, but it was exactly what she needed to find an answer. Closing the book, she decided to dig up the box once more, perhaps that would give her some clues. Grabbing a shovel she went around to the front and quickly retrieved the box from under the front steps.
As she remembered, the box was carved on all sides with scenes of people - reading, farming, crafting, family and more...each side of the box was different. On the front there is a small hole into which the ring can be slipped. Taking the box inside, Janora set it on the workbench next to the book.
Slipping the ring off, the witch pressed it into the space. This caused a seam to appear and Janora was able to lift the lid off of the box. Inside was a strange looking frame woven of some sort of plant matter. Strung across this was a sort of web or cat's cradle, although only a few strands remain connected. There was also some sort of dust or debris that rattled around at the bottom of the box. It all looked too fragile to touch and after making a few notes she put the lid back on. When she pressed down on it, the box resealed and the ring popped out. Slipping the ring onto her finger, Janora went into the kitchen to brew some tea before she headed into the village to speak to the villagers.

27th Planting

Denye had spent the last two days head down working on her spells. She had had a breakthrough and was working out a new Teleport spell that wasn't limited to teleport circles. That was well beyond the magic Jilken could channel but she was quite happy to practice some of the simpler spells that the Corva wizard had shared. Still that hadn't been enough to keep her busy all the time so the Aiel warrior went down to the barracks and spent several hours sparring under the Woodguard Weaponsmaster's gaze.
Ell had also been busy. He had spent most of the last day with a local law firm, getting a new company set up for the new messaging system. The firm had promised to take care of hiring a director to run the day-to-day operations and get the construction started.
The young noble was just writing a letter for his inventor explaining what had been set up when there was a knock on the door. Tear answered and a few moments later came over to hand Ell a small package. Ell took it with interest and opened the letter attached but became more wary when he saw it was a letter from his elder sister, Linira Darnet.
As he read, his face clouded and he sighed loudly. Ranunkel looked up from where he had been playing with Pebble and asked, "Is everything alright, Ell?"
"Well," began Ell, rubbing his temple with one hand, "our new name is apparently the Wacky Weirdos. I wish I knew if she was actually serious that these are rumors or if she is making them up herself just to torment me. That doesn't really matter, what's more important is that there is a group dressed like us setting fires in small towns around Dreford."
"What?" asked Ranunkel, "I mean I have been gone for a while, have you all been setting fires?"
"Of course not!" protested Ell, "we haven't been to Dreford since that business with the Taken. Even if we had, why would we be setting villages on fire?"
"Who's setting villages on fire?" asked Jilken as she and Denye came into the sitting room.
Ell turned to the two and gave them a wan smile, "Apparently some imposters dressed as us, or so my sister says."
"That's quite concerning," said Denye, "why would someone do that?"
"Who knows," said Ell, shrugging his shoulders, "at the very least it will ruin our reputation."
Jilken scowled, "They could be trying to get us in trouble with the authorities."
"I suppose," said Ell, "Linira didn't provide many details, so I have no idea how widespread this is. Maybe it's only happened a couple of times. I think we'll have to go to Dreford and investigate."
"Oh no," said Denye, her claw flying up to her beak, "didn't Janora say yesterday that she wanted to go to Dreford and for us to meet her there the day after tomorrow."
Jilken nodded, "She said she wanted to get a tattoo." Glancing down at her own arms and hands, the Aiel smiled, "Can't say as I blame her, I'm pretty happy with mine."
"Are you going to tell Janora about the imposters," asked Ranunkel.
Ell thought for a moment but shook his head, "This would be better talked about in person, I think. We'll tell her about it once we are all settled at the inn."
"Good idea," said Jilken, "otherwise she might just burn the city down."
Ell nodded, "I really would prefer working with the Watch. If Janora tries to talk to them by herself she'll be confrontational and they might try to arrest her."
"That would get messy," said Denye, shivering, her feathers fluffing madly, "I'm not even sure if such a thing is possible, but someone is going to get hurt if they try it."
"How fast can we get to Dreford?" asked Ranunkel, "It sounds like it might be best to get there before Janora."
"I don't know of a circle in Dreford," said Denye, "but both Karobark and Everoim have towers nearby. If you give me a day to get in touch with Karobark, he's about a day's sail out and I would much rather deal with him."
That seemed like a good plan and Denye went to her room to write her mentor a quick note. Tear pointed at the box that had come with the letter and asked, "What's in the box, Boss?"
"Oh," said Ell looking down at the box, "I had forgotten with the other news. My sister said something about a Longest Night gift." Untying the string and unwrapping the paper he revealed a small wooden box, simple but stained and polished. Distrustful, the young man took the box over to the window and setting it on the ledge took a few steps back. Using mage hand he carefully opened the lid. When no puff of poison or other substance appeared, Ell stepped forward and picked it up. Nestled in a soft cushion was a bracelet made of copper disks stamped with the Darnet crest and sapphire cabochons in twisted white gold.
Ell eyed it suspiciously and used his mage hand to pick it up and hold it up to the light so he could get a better look. It looked well made, the stones polished and cut to reveal the silverish stars at the heart of the sapphire stones. As Denye walked back into the room, he asked, "Denye would you take a look at this for any magical traps...or really anything at all."
"Of course," said Denye using her own mage hand to take the bracelet, "let's take it to my study." Turning on her heels, she went back into the other room, Ell following after her. The wizard took some time to ritually cast Detect Magic and Identify over the bracelet but found nothing magical whatsoever. Handing it back to the warlock she said, "I think it's just a gift, the stones are pretty but magically inert."
"Maybe," said Ell with a frown, but took it, "She never just does something like this for no reason. Oh well, thank you for checking Denye." The wizard's stomach took that moment to gurgle loudly. Ell laughed and dropped the jewelry into his pocket, "Come on, after all that work the least I can do is buy you dinner."

Character(s) interacted with

Hennalor Zinfir - Owner of the Restless Ravern

Report Date

26 Jan 2024