Current Story

Short summaries of the occurrences that plague the party every week.

## Step 1

### August 23rd, 543 RE

After receiving a mysterious letter, Ilyana the psionic rogue, Karia the fire-happy alchemist, and Francis the snarky bard were directed to search for the Stormy Throne. Joined by the happy-go-lucky Ogre Magi, they explored the ancient ruins of Silverfont, a temple dedicated to a powerful Sihir. They discovered many things here: That Silverfont was destroyed by the revered general, Rys, who founded the capital city of Ryslatel; the existence and worship of the elemental beings known as Sihir, and a strange star-like pattern that displayed a portion of the night sky from January.

However, their search was rudely interrupted by a squad of guards who aimed to arrest the group. Francis was able to charm the guard captain into giving his cohorts false information which ultimately lead to the party gaining passage on the ship back to Ryslatel. As they left the island behind, they could only watch as the temple itself burned due to their own negligence and carelessness.

## Step 2

### August 27th, 543 RE

Days passed on the voyage to Ryslatel until they were accosted by the infamous pirate, Northwind, who appeared to be an elemental being much like the Sihir. Strange, as it is common knowledge that Rys wiped them all out hundreds of years ago. Although the party was able to fight them off through strength and cunning, they lost much. Their ship was seriously damaged, the Ogre Magi drowned in the churning seas, and the creature that had led the pirates escaped.

## Step 3

### August 30th, 543 RE

The party docked in the port city of Ventice for repairs and supplies. There they discovered Pontent’s Bandits, a group that stole their hard-earned gold. To get it back, the party recruited the help of Tychus, a well-travelled bounty hunter, and set a trap to find the bandits’ lair. There they discovered that Lyndly Clare, a member of the High Council of Ryslatel, was hiring Pontent’s Bandits to kidnap people into slavery. The party dismantled the bandits and killed their leader, and then continued onto Ryslatel, where they hoped for a respite.

## Step 4

### September 3rd, 543 RE

Upon arriving in Ryslatel they were greeted by Drace Ilform, a servant under Lady Loma Palune. She revealed herself to be the party’s employer and a prominent information broker in the city. After giving them a new assignment (and mourning the loss of the temple at Silverfont), the party prepared to leave. However, she was shot during their exit, and the party took chase of the cloaked assailant.

After a lot of noise and chaos they disabled the assailant and his cohort, who joined him during the chase. The assailant, known as West, was revealed to be an assassin sent to kill Loma Palune by none other than the High Council member Andre Daeli. With the approval of Ilyana but not Francis, Tychus shot West in the back of his head and let his cohort go. Unfortunately, it turned out that Daeli had purchased, stolen, and otherwise claimed all sources of the rare Sapphron.

## Step 5

### September 4th, 543 RE

Following his injuries at the hands of the Guard of Ryslatel, Francis was approached by Christopher Tell, the leader of the Ryslatel Revolution. Francis agreed to attend one of their meetings, unknowing that his ally, Tychus, had agreed to take a contract that called for Christopher Tell's head. Francis proved his loyalty to the Revolution just before Christopher Tell was assassinated, leading the Revolution to name Francis as their leader.

Ilyana discovered that Daelie had gotten rid of the Sapphron by using it as a dye for his latest batch of textiles. Although she brought this to King Malik's attention, he was wary of beginning an open investigation with Ryslatel in the state that it was in following the assassination of Christopher Tell. Encouraged to continue the search for the Stormy Throne by Lady Loma Palune while the city sorted itself out, Ilyana and Tychus left the city for a village called Cinderglen.

## Step 6

### September 5th, 543 RE

On their way to Cinderglen, Tychus and Ilyana were attacked by bounty hunters. The sorcerer Ignis joined the fray midway through, and then attached himself to the party. When the three arrived at Cinderglen days later, they found the village abandoned - although it appeared that whoever was there had just left. After a bit of investigation they discovered the village had been pulled halfway into the Plane of Fire, making them invisible to people on the Material Plane. The party deduced that a sorcerer named Saliman was behind this, and approached his hideout at the Monolith.

They saw Saliman enter the Monolith by melting a hole through the obsidian slab, and then followed after him into a vast network of tunnels. In the center of the labyrinth they found a tower with the pulsing heart of the volcano. When they entered the tower they found it unoccupied and discovered the spellbooks that Saliman had used to partially move this region into the plane of fire. However, while Ignis attempted to undo the spell, he was interrupted by Saliman. Saliman, irritated at their interruption, teleported the party 200 miles southwest of Cinderglen.

## Step 7

### September 9th, 543 RE

The party recovered at a town called Greyborough near to where they had been teleported to and bought some horses to make their trek back to Cinderglen go quicker. Unfortunately, upon arriving at Cinderglen, they found it burnt to the ground and a Volcanic Amalgamation was prowling the streets of ash. After talking to the Amalgamation for a time, Ignis and Ilyana discovered that the Amalgamation had been created from the backlash of the interrupted spell Ignis had tried to cast to restore their appearance on the Material Plane.

They blew their way back into the Monolith's tunnels and infiltrated Saliman's Tower, stealing several of his spellbooks in the process. However, this was interrupted by the Amalgamation, which was heavily agitated by this action and decided to attack the party. Ignis began to decode and recide the counterspell that could possibly release the villagers from this horrific form while Ilyana and Tychus tried to distract the Amalgamation from his plans. Although they were ultimately successful, it came with a sacrifice - Tychus was consumed just before Ignis was able to complete the spell.

After a brief moment to mourn and bury their fallen comrade, the remaining party returned to a way station back the road from Cinderglen. There they met the artificer Arken, who was an old friend of Tychus's. When they revealed to her his fate she resolved to help them in their quest in honor of his memory. And thus, the group returned to Ryslatel...

## Step 8

### September 12th, 543 RE

In Ryslatel they discovered that King Malik's plans to infiltrate Daeli's primary textile factory were finished. He had directed Detective Charlotte Cooper to gather her most trusted associates and find anything that the King could use against Daeli. The King also requested that the party join their foray.

While the first floor of the textile factory held few secrets, they did discover that Daeli was attempting to refine the poison, Midnight Wort, into a tasteless, scentless poison that would be very useful in the subversive war he was waging against the nobility in Ryslatel. The second floor revealed the alchemists refining the poison as well as a large group of recruits that seemed to have some skill over psionics. While the party was able to convince the recruits that there was nothing to worry about, the alchemists ended up arrested by Charlotte Cooper.

The third and final floor of the factory held a fierce battle between several of Daeli's elite guard - one with a powerful and unique weapon - as well as information that Daeli had left behind. Amongst the clues of where he had gone and what he was interested in, the party also found two gifts of note - a battered, broken hilt of a sword with the symbol of a long-dead psionic company, and a strange ring unable to be removed from Ignis's hand.

## Step 9

### September 15th, 543 RE

The party, following their victory against Daeli in the arrest of one of his top alchemists and the discovery of his hidden compound underneath the factory, decided to keep momentum against him and attempt to beat him to the sole farmer of Sapphron. Although they encountered some strange happenings in the passage to Zemja, they ultimately were able to beat Daeli there, convinced the farmer to give them the last remnants of last year's crop of Sapphron, and then burn his fields before Daeli was able to arrive.

They returned to Ryslatel, gave Loma Palune the remedy brewed from the Sapphron they recovered, and cured her Midnight Wort poisoning. Success!

## Step 10

### September 20th, 543 RE

Now that the issue of Loma Palune's poison was solved, the party could once again focus on the recovery of the Stormy Throne. With the shards of the Heart of Fire already in their possession, Loma Palune suggested that they visit a legendary blacksmith in the Southern Wilds to see if it could be reforged. Although the other Hearts were known, those protecting them would be very adverse to giving them away to a group of unknown adventurers. Since Ilyana in particular had business in the Southern Wilds, they agreed to pursue that goal and chartered one of the few ships heading to the Watcher's Sanctuary, which was the closest port to the Lady's Lake in Miserth.

On their journey they were accosted by a young brine dragon that called himself Jaleth. He said that he had been cast out by his matron and was hunted by his kin, and requested passage on the ship. After some convincing, the crew allowed him to stay as long as he didn't cause any trouble. However, a day later his siblings came with the intent to kill him. After the party killed one of them and severely injured another, Jaleth begged the party to let the survivor go, and told his sibling to tell their matron that he was dead. He would never return to this place as long as he lived.

When they reached the Watcher's Sanctuary, Jaleth left the party after having grown close to them on the journey. He promised to aid them if they were ever to cross paths, as unlikely as that was to happen. While the Watcher's Sanctuary was unpleasant, Ilyana investigated a lead she suspected - the clue of East she was given, who she believed was the cohort of the assassin West who poisoned Loma Palune a month ago. Although this lead proved fruitless, Ilyana resolved to find the meaning behind East, and the party continued on their journey to meet with the legendary blacksmith at the Lady's Lake.

## Step 11

### September 26th, 543 RE

The party travelled through the deep and forbidding forest that makes up a vast majority of the Southern Wilds. They had heard from Jaleth that this place was known as the Land of Giants to the dragons, but the party was ill prepared for the other things dwelling within the forest. During their week and a half long journey, they encountered giants - a 100-ft-tall plant and stone giant that plowed through the forest like it was little more than tall grass, a 200-ft-tall jet black wolf that chased Arken through the treetops - but also encountered man-eating treants, flesh squirrels, talking rabbits, foxes that dressed like nobles and walked on two legs, and a pair of mysterious changeling twins.

These strange happenings left the party on edge and Arken pushed to the brink of insanity. Although they arrived at the edge of the Lady's Lake in one piece, the journey back would likely be more taxing. How many of them would be able to make it back to the Watcher's Sanctuary with both their mind and body intact?

## Step 12

### October 7th, 543 RE

Using a rowboat pulled from a extradimensional pocket in Ignis' robes, the party made their way across the lake to a large building built roughly a mile or two off shore.