Session 25

### Summary

One of Mavka's mistakes finally catches up with her in a fiery confrontation that leaves her broken and incomplete in more ways than one. Helio has a fright that he'll forget.

## Setting

### Locations

Auril's Pass, Isaldul, The Standing Stones, Salyava'trea, Springvale, Vandorythe, Est'Faelas

## NPC Appearances

#### The Road Into Isaldul

Rain fell through the peaceful forest. Mavka conjured leaf umbrellas for the party using her favorite cantrip, Druidcraft, then began leading everyone toward Isaldul while keeping an eye out for signs of her doppelganger. She found a well-trodden path with horse tracks that were a couple days old, which may have belonged to the doppelganger, and began to follow it.

Gossamer asked Mavka for Niperro's journal, and began reading it in an attempt to learn Abyssal.

Meanwhile, Mavka read up on one of the books she had acquired from the Gray Manor before it had burned down. It was the one about RBFGs; she found that some of their organs, the ones they used to capture energy, were used in very powerful spells. She then scried on her doppelganger using the enchanted glass eyes that the party had acquired from The Twisted Twins. Mavka saw that the doppelganger was riding the same horse she had seen earlier, and was galloping at a breakneck pace toward the mountains. There was shouting in the distance; it seemed the doppelganger had caused a disturbance of some kind.

As it was getting dark and growing cold, the party decided to set up camp for the night. Mavka planted the pocket tree, which was once again holding the tent that the party had obtained in Ducee, and cast Druidcraft to make some dry wood for a fire, since it had been raining all day. Gossamer gave one Goodberry to each party member for dinner, since they had run out of rations.

Gossamer brought up the events of the day; being manipulated by Beetroot was weighing heavy on everyone's mind. Helio, Gossamer, and Caeli expressed their disappointment in being so easily manipulated and finding themselves on the wrong side of the fight, as they each had once before. Caeli volunteered the idea that they party should abide by a code in order to prevent this from happening again.

#### The Code of the Amber Order:

1. Own up to your mistakes and do everything you can to fix them.
2. Keep yourself and other the party members in check.
3. Don't use excuses to take advantage of others.
4. Abide by the laws of the land.
5. Make sure you understand the context before you go charging in to a potentially dangerous situation.
6. Be confident in your decisions.

#### Someone's Watching, But it Isn't Us

After that discussion, the party split up their watches. Gossamer and Helio went first, and Gossamer tried to sense any unnatural presences. She did sense one, but couldn't tell exactly where it was coming from, as she was a bit out of practice. Helio checked to see if the shadow-spies were still following the party, but found that they had gone.

Deciding to let the later watches deal with it, Gossamer and Helio instead discussed their accents. Helio related that his sister, Jasper, had dropped their family's accent. Gossamer had adopted the accent of a butcher family who had been kind to her.

Eventually, Helio went to bed and Caeli took his place. Gossamer told Caeli that she felt a weird presence, and Caeli tried to pinpoint it. The presence was vague, because she didn't understand what it was, but she did sense that it was within the vicinity of the tent. Gossamer searched everything in Ara's saddlebags in an attempt to find the source, but found nothing of any note. She left the mess for Karaa and Mavka to clean up.

Gossamer woke up Mavka and Karaa, who took the second half of the watch and cleaned up the mess Gossamer had left. After a *painfully* awkward heart-to-heart in which they sort of decided to get back together, they held hands and watched the sunrise. Eventually, as the rest of the party woke up, they started collecting ingredients to make breakfast for everyone.

#### A Bright New Day

While she was cooking, Mavka cast Druidcraft to check the weather, which would be clear and sunny for the foreseeable future. Pleased that things were looking up, she cheerfully cast Druidcraft again to make everyone flower crowns. The party then set off towards the mountains and Auril's pass. On the way, Gossamer asked how she could blend in with typical Isalduians, but Karaa and Mavka reassured her that behavior would matter more than her appearance.

The party met Eris at Auril's Pass. She told them that magic salts can protect things from the rift, not just keep things from coming out. They told her about the five rifts they had found, and Eris said that she was trying to figure out who had betrayed the Ruby Ring and gotten her husband killed. She said that she was going to return to Gratt, where she had killed an orc-leader with a necklace made of obsidian, similar to the ones that the party had encountered the Sons of Vestige wearing.

She also pointed out that Helio had a similar ring. This seemed to have appeared overnight without anyone noticing, including Helio himself.

With that, Eris bid the group goodbye and left, presumably for Gratt.

#### To the Standing Stones

As the party approached the pass, two guards waved them down. When they set eyes on Mavka, their demeanor darkened. They told Mavka that the Elders would want to see her, and sent for additional escorts. Knowing something of what was to come, Mavka said that the rest of the party could go stay at her parents' home in Salyava'trea, and that she would meet them there later. Karaa wanted to go with Mavka, so she gave them directions to head East along the Strawberry Road.

When Mavka had departed with her escorts, the rest of the party elected to follow her instead of going to her family home. On the trail, Mavka drew a lot of attention, and not the good kind. Caeli asked what she had done to earn her treatment, and a nearby elf said that Mavka had burned down a sacred forest and stolen an ancient relic. She was going to face judgement from Tyr in response to her crimes.

#### Ashes, Ashes, We All Fall Down...

Meanwhile, Mavka and her escorts reached the Standing Stones. The ancient stones were floating, and rotating slowly through the air, as they had when she had first gone through her druidic initiation. Before stepping up onto the platform, Mavka took off her flower crown and her bags, and gave them to Karaa.

When she stepped onto the center platform, the stones began to spin faster. The three druidic Elders, Hathoral, Camus, and Ian, joined her on the platform, stepping effortlessly between the spinning boulders. With their presence, the sky darkened into a mass of violet storm clouds, and the wind picked up speed, spinning the boulders even faster.

The Elders conversed with Mavka for some time, though their words unheard by the growing crowd. After a moment, Mavka hesitated before giving up her staff to Camus, and submit herself to their judgement, only to be told she would face the judgement of Tyr, not the Elders. The three Elders exited the platform as gracefully as they had entered, leaving Mavka alone among the whirlwind of stones and dark skies.

Overcome with sudden fatigue, Mavka began to tire. Just as she was about to fall, a flash of green light struck the stones. The party watched, horrified, as Mavka disappeared, replaced by a single, small flame floating where she had once stood.

Mavka was lifted into the air by the guilt and dread in the pit of her stomach. With a flash of green light, she could feel everything. She felt the fire in the Davelwyn Woods and in the graves of her ancestors, burning everything, and she was burning, too. The pain was excruciating. All she could see was red-hot light, blinding everything.

After what felt like an eternity of torture, a voice rang out in her mind: "Are you willing to change?"

Through the pain, incapable of speaking, it was the best Mavka could do to form a single coherent, desperate thought: "*Yes!*"

At that moment, the pain began to ease. She felt her bones and the trees become one and the same, everything and nothing, living ashes.

Mavka felt ashen. She was herself again, but felt like some part of her was missing. She sat slumped in a pit of soot amidst fire-scarred trees, the aftermath of her mistake. In a moment that nearly made her heart stop, she realized she couldn't stand— one of her legs was missing from the mid-thigh down, burned to cinders with the rest of the forest.

Trying not to panic, she called out to see if anyone was there. Instead, there was just Tyr's voice in her head again: "Not yet. not anymore. this is your chance."

With another flash of green lightning, Mavka reappeared in the midst of the Standing Stones, kneeling, and covered head-to-toe in ashes. The Elders appeared surprised that she had returned, and returned Mavka's staff to her. Instead of the once cool, shaded forest energy it had embodied, it now glowed bright as embers. Mavka struggled to stand, leaning heavily on her staff, to no avail.

All Mavka could feel again was fire and ash, just more pain. She couldn't sense the forest around her anymore. Staggering under the disorientation, medics lifted her onto a gurney and began trying to care for her. She soon passed out, and didn't wake up until two days later.

#### An Awakening

When Mavka awoke, her throat was dry and sore. She still felt like ash and flame, and the forest was still missing. She asked for water, and then willow bark tea, which Karaa provided. When she tried to stand, Karaa stopped her, and Mavka discovered that she now had a prosthetic limb. Karaa told the party that Mavka was awake and they came in to see her. Gossamer discovered that she was related to Silas, Mavka's father, making Mavka and Gossamer cousins.

After some talking, the rest of the party went with Mavka's mother, Atara, to barter for the supplies and clothing they needed. Mavka's brother, Faen showed Caeli how to fly a kite, then hit on Helio as he showed them the way to the library of Est'Faelas. Gossamer went to find a translation guide for Abyssal, Caeli looked for information on lycanthropy, and Faen and Helio went to go look for information about the relic that Mavka's doppelganger had stolen. Helio discovered that the relic was an energy orb from an aboleth's lair, something powerful enough to rewrite reality. The others had limited success at the library.

Mavka was still feeling off. There was still a pain in her gut— a spiritual pain, not a physical pain. She spent the day training herself how to walk again, getting used to the phantom pain in her leg, then took some time off to relax in the hot springs, where she was rejoined by the others. Helio told the group about the relic, and they deliberated on a course of action. They would spend the night at Salyava'trea. Then, tomorrow, they would collect the supplies they needed and go after the doppelganger.

Before bed, Caeli began writing a letter to Travis, having missed him the past several days.

That night, after they had arrived at Appledore and Mavka thought everyone was asleep, she crept outside to meditate under the trees and the moonlight. She tried to reconnect with nature, but still felt like she was viewing the world through someone else's eyes. When she tried to create a single flower with Druidcraft, it blackened and crumpled into ash in her palm.

While trying to fall asleep, Helio fidgeted with the new black ring on his finger, attempting to pry it off with no success.

He wouldn't remember the words it spoke to him in the morning.