Realms S2E25 Beyond The Darkness

Following the fall of Val'Tok, the Good Buddies may finally have a chance to breath as their attention can now turn to more personal matters.

### Player Characters Present

Eclipse, Naphako, Keywynn, Kyrealle, Kerrick

### Synopsis

The Good Buddies stand around the recently revived Keywynn in Pyriel's tower, Val’tok having been slain, presumably fulfilling his desire.

Before leaving, Kyrealle collects Val'tok's ashes, and attunes to the large orb wich connects her to up to 7 other wizards. They decided to camp in the room to rest. Keywynn brings out Elskon for cuddles and Naphako brings out Tyvar to assist. Even Eclipse brings out Bird to join in the pile.

As they settle down for the rest. Eclipse and Naphako speak of Val'tok and Naphako's confusion over his point of view on her god, as well as the value he placed in power. From there Naphako will slowly approached Keywynn, who looks spaced out.

Naphako says she’s there for Keywynn, who struggles with the guilt over her brother. Naphako tries to reassure her and says that they could very well find him again, yet Keywynn is scared of what he may become by that point. Overall, the group puts her at ease with fond memories of her early meeting with Kerrick, where she set a river on fire.

Ky finishes her ritual, she learns a bit about the orb and how it amplified magic. She also learns about Val'tok's plans, and a bit about the other wizards connected to the ball. She tries to explain these interplanar concepts to group, but it goes over their heads.

Following this Eclipse will FINALLY, have a real conversation with Light. He asks about her memories, of which she has some from their childhood and some of the more painful ones of becoming her current state. She can't remember whether her parents are still alive and both admit that they struggle to remember their faces. As they speak of future plans, Glib makes an appearance to say he doesn't want to find his parents. He also takes some time to, of course, taunt Eclipse. This inevitably causes in fighting within Naphako's skull.

They'll rest through the night, three quiet watches. As morning comes, it dawns on them they are close to the next full moon, meaning there are sacrifices to be made. Keywynn will send a message to Gwendolyn that Pyriel has been delt with in an attempt to prevent future sacrifices. Gwendolyn seemed a bit preoccupied with fighting, but acknowledged the heads up.

From there they realize they now need to find a way out of this damn place, and follow the draft to outside the cavern. It’s still snowy and cold. There is one change as they can now see the sun. What they don't see is quite perplexing as there are no signs of any constructs, no Duergar, ballista are deactivated. It’s just empty.

Naphako remembers the prisoners. So they head back to find that there are people still within the cages. Easily unlockable now, they free them, who are now seemingly no longer entranced and happy to be freed.

During this time there are also some books found, including those on lichdom and perhaps another one of the artificers journals. With the books that are found, Ky does piece together that Val'tok is probably not dead and in fact wanted this to happen.

With Ky amplifying her power through the Orb she’s able to summon the Honka truck from the far location they left it. They hop in and head to Trevak. On the trip, Eclipse will try to pick the lock on the artificers journal, and its defenses injure eclipse in the process. On the trip, Keywynn notices a storm in the distance, what’s worse, it’s like before and seems to be targeting them.

They debate on driving through or having Ky weight the truck down. As they enter the heart of it, visibility dies, so they decide to stop and wait. She has to keep adjusting the trucks density to keep from flying away. After 15 minutes though she is spent, but thankfully the truck stays on the ground.

They manage to make it unscathed, and at around midnight are able to continue there travel. As they make it to Trevak, they see a crowd gathered around that platform with one person strapped to a beam. The crowd seems to be arguing. As a person holding a torch walks over to the captive, Keywynn tries to push her way to the stage. Not making headway, she grabs Naphako and dimension doors to the stage to interrupt the proceedings. They try to stop it all by explaining the situation. He asks for proof, and their evidence is not all that compelling. It’s also about this time that Keywynn and Naphako notice that its not just any prisoner on stage. Its Janice strapped to that beam.

Keywynn is upset at the lack of communication between the towns as they have not yet received any word from Gwendolyn. After learning that they are now responsible for Janice, Keywynn storms off, mad at the whole situation

Naphako does manage to calm everyone, as the guard really wants to believe what they say is true, despite that lack of any evidence. He dispatches a rider to nearby towns to tell them to also postpone their sacrifices.

Meanwhile Keywynn will head to her favorite shopkeep Glim, over at the Broken Duck. He doesn't seem too interested in speaking with her, fearing she will harm him. She'll eventually charm her way in and thanks him for the horse statue, before telling him about Pyriel's "demise" which earns her a hug. To celebrate, together they plot to prank Glim’s brother. After a few more minutes Keywynn gets removed from the store in time to meet Kerrick who had followed her to the shop.

Kerrick takes her back towards the tavern. Once back at the tavern they once again see Noble and Chills. Once back in the room, Keywynn will release Elskon and try to send a message to Rolan, but does not receive a response.

Naphako will spend a bit of time trying to unlock the artificer journal, eventually discovering it’s voice coded to “Eleda” the name of the necromancer’s daughter. So, She stays up the reminder of the night reading through the text. It switches between Eleda's childhood and Retsecor’s experiments.

The following morning, they wake up to an odd sensation, the warmth of the sun upon their faces. Keywynn is particularly happy to see the sun.

Eclipse will waste no time meeting up with Naphako, who is currently Eleda. She's short with him, throwing some serious passive aggressive shade, before Naphako takes back over and tries to smooth it all over, with mild success.

Meanwhile, Keywynn does message Nak to give an update. She doesn't get much of a response as the dolt is in the process of accidentally burning himself. She learns that things are picking up in the area of Night Crest.

Naphako will stay behind to read. She learns about Eleda’ heart condition and how she was dying. She also learns of a tabaxi girl who was brought to the artificer, who was also dying. He was unable to save the girl so he transplanted the tabaxi heart into Naphako. From there multiple body systems started to fail, so the transplants continued to the point where he started to hunt victims for their organs, and from there he sort of changed his focus to "improving" her.

While this happens, Keywynn will head over to Jellel’s shop to try and learn about the fate of her brother. She learns that there are a lot of creatures he could have made a deal with. She does learn that her brother is not dead but that there is an entity blocking communication. She gets some information on possible creatures that would make this sort of deal.

Back at the tavern, Eclipse will take some coffee over to Naphako who is still reading. She gives him a brief update before delving into the fate of Light, the tabaxi girl. Eclipse here's that his sister was dying and was used to help save Eleda.

As Keywynn wanders the town on her way back to the tavern, she meanders around talking to random people and animals, bless her heart, she gets a message from Rolan, wishing her well and letting her know that he is safe. She responds looking for more information, but we do not learn if she gets a response.