Game 60

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**Arrival in the Shadowfel**

As we begin to walk through the landscape, it is as if there is an afterimage, as if light itself is slower than the things around it. THe floating obelisks above the city are of different sizes and are rotating very slowly. There are swords stuck from multiple angles stuck into stone, the obelisks appear to be piercing the city from several different angles. Looking overhead, there are no stars in the sky. There are passing dark shapes that seem to be shifting and moving above. David asks Aeidun what our first step should be. He appears lost in his thoughts.

A: If we are to find Merric, I have a suspicion of where he could be. \*he scrunches his eyes, a grimace flashing across his face, as if he is remembering something unpleasant.\*

O: Before we proceed, the two of you have history, no? Is there anything we should know before we encounter him?

A: \*looks towards the city and looks back towards the river\* Things you ought to know about Merric… \*a pained expression\* there was a time that we were friends. A lifetime ago. I always wanted to be better friends. We spent many years traveling together with our master.

**Damian and Aeidun Talk of the Past**

\*he regards Otto for a moment\*

*A dedicated man though stern at times with what he wanted . We were commissioned by Karsis, and we followed in tote. At the time, Netheril was gaining many followers and clansmen, thought the heart of the desert was still very much ununified. Smaller towns began to group, as Karsis rose together. We started to uncover histories from the past. Many of us were orphans of the conflicts that followed. Merric and I were no exceptions to this. My master, Martine, took both of us from different circumstances. Before the war I was an orphan of the streets of  Oreheme.*

*I always asked Merric where he had come from and he would just be despondent and say he didn't remember. Months of traveling turned to years, and I began to believe we had a friendship. Part of me still believes that. But then the spell plague happened. A, secret meeting was called between great leaders and champions of the different nations. SO I, with my master, and several of the other nations heroes set out to uncover the source of the spell plague. My master having some connections, was very well connected and had a prized reputation among unearthing the ancient arcane. I was more mere assistant, and quickly Merric’s aptitude revealed itself and our master trained us in different arts.*

*About that time, a great discovery was made. A world echoing our own. Forever close, and forever distant. It was Karsis who brought the first Netheril grhought. And soon great wonders started to appear in the Empire. Something happened that caused a rift. There was a great meeting between Karsis and many of the others. These five heroes. The nature of the discussions seemed to have changed. Tensions mounted. At the climax a solution seemed to have been discovered to the spell-plague. I was also was privy to these talks, but I know it happened here. What soon came after was calamity, and you've seen the result of that scattered across the sky and the Feywild. I've spent many years wondering about the nature of those closed doors. I was left behind. Martine was away, and it was said that an ancient discovery had been made. And being that we were good luck, as seen by some of the soldiers, we were brought with. Others disagreed.*

\*he looks at Otto’s emblem\*.

*There was a great gate; twisted black figures splayed across it. Demons. I believe that now. Deep and far within the high forest, on Faerun, a project was made to unearth this gate. At the star mount. What's more is it opened. We didn't know where it went. I don't blame the order for what happened, but I do hold those responsible for what they did. At that time, the war, was underway.  Suspicions began to sneak into the minds of greater and lesser men alike. Merric was speculated to have come from the Empire. The tensions ran deep, and not knowing where the gate led, he was forced through. Just a boy. Expendable was the word they used. He was not seen again. But as they gained their courage, we found ourselves stepping thorough ourselves. Merric- nowhere to be found. It seemed our way to this other world had been opened. And with the order, this was a great discovery. A step closer to Abraxus."*

Damian: I may have seen a bit of what you described.

A: Oh?

D: When they had hold of me, I managed to turn the tide against them. And I think I may have seen a bit of Merric’s ordeal. I recall this young boy being pushed through. Tell me, were you with Martine when he discovered these? \*holds up his bracers\*

A: Where did you come by those?

D: They were given to me by my master.

A: Who is?

D: Honestly, not entirely sure. But he calls himself Trelor.

A: Trelor… \*Damian conjures an image of him.\* I am unfamiliar with him.

D: I’m not surprised.

A: I have not seen those with Martine. But i have seen their design. It may be better to see for yourself. \*He nods toward the city.\*

O: Your master. Do you know what became of him?

A: He disappeared. He came very quickly one last time after the gate had been opened, and we entered into the wood. We found Merric, afraid, shaking. When we asked what was wrong, he didn’t speak. Clearly he was traumatized. And if you know anything of this place I imagine many things he could have seen or encountered, but he was sensitive before. Confused often. Sometimes he would forget where he was. And then this happened. And, that confusion coupled with his brilliance turned to anger. He began to blame the order. And I don’t entirely disagree with him. Not only what had happened to him. That’s when he left. We were not welcome ever within the order. Not being, well, I think you might know.

D: If I may. I don’t think I’ve ever asked any of you this. Do any of you recognize this man? \*conjures an image of a man beneath the tower at his home. None of us recognize him.\* Well, then. The mystery continues. I might know where one of those gates is.

A: \*arches an eyebrow\*

D: Not anywhere I think we want to be going. But if it’s useful to know. Exercise great caution. I don’t presume to know what happened to Merric. But I know that it is not the same as when we found it then. I’ll explain further. But perhaps for now we should continue.

David: \*begins walking\* What is it that we’re doing here?

Otto: \*begins to follow\* We don’t know entirely. We are trying to track down Merric. Perhaps one of the tablets as well.

**Thultanthar**

There is a clock tower with a shingled roof going towards the top with several ramparts leading off to the side. A third tower appears to be all in white, not unlike the Bastille itself. Half of that tower is completely caved in on its side. There appears to be some sort of fire damage. The white tower is the Royal Tower, the home of Karsis himself.

On a hill, there are a series of three black obelisks leading up to the water, leading up to the edge of the glowing lake. There is a small boat tied off to a post. There is a lot of foot traffic in the area, with several tracks leading off to the woods.

Damian goes up to inspect an obelisk. There is a set of magnagraphic script running up it. There appears to be an indentation that is set to receive a small black marble. Damian can infer that this obelisk would lead somewhere else in the Shadowfell itself.

Damian casts identify on the black bead. It has three charges and once expended they have to be refilled by way of a ritual. He also ascertains that it is more druidic based magic, giving it to Aziola for further study. A single charge costs 50 gold worth of Selunerite or Sharite.

Off in the distance, Otto notices in the sky, there are small streaks of movement out of the corner of his eye. That's when he realizes the sky itself is dark, but what's making it dark are hundreds of thousands of wraiths blanketing the sky.

The group decides to use the boat to get across. Damian casts water breathing on the group. As we are rowing across, Damian notices a bass relief that matches his bracers. The city is submerged. This is what once was a floating Nethrelese city. As we pass under the threshold, there are three figures fighting a series of black serpents on the relief. These depictions are very similar to the depictions in the White Bastille. Karisis, a drow, and Midnight.

A: When we first survived within the Feywild, the great houses were marred by a plague. Great nightmares, unified; given shape. When the first of the Eladrin made peace with the beast kinds, there was one who rebelled. Who refused. It was said that she followed one of the ancient primordial. This was the price for trade. The heroes five were to rid her nightmare from across the fey wild and banish it back here. We didn't know what they found. The way of the Estellar was open to us.

Damian: Did you know Midnight?

A: No. She was very private. I only saw her once. She was very kind. As with Karsis.

Damian puts the Monocle on and the place around us comes into focus. The city around us is riddled with ghosts. There is a hazy afterimage of incredible magical dissonance. Particularly at the clock tower, as well as the other two towers.

Damian: This place is incredibly haunted. There are 100s of ghosts.

One near us begins to move lazily in and out. A man in full plate. The head itself is caved in. As it rises higher, wraiths begin to pass through it, as the figure begins to shimmer out. It appears that the wraiths are feeding off of it. The wraiths themselves seem to be avoiding the water.

A: It has been some time since I saw it last. Perhaps a disguise is in order. \*He casts an illusion that makes him appear as Tolfor and he begins whistling the Harper tune.

Eventually we arrive at the White Tower. Rowan, with Cirrine, goes up to the top to secure David’s grappling hook. We all make our way to the top of the tower.

Damian finds a door with a mirror. After turning into the image of Karsis, that activates the door to open. The interior of the room appears to be a bed chamber. A simple room with a desk and a mirror. In front of the desk is a hairbrush of some sort. A smaller looking stone resting beside it. To the right is a series of jars and cabinets. The room itself has some curvature to it. On the far side next to the bed is an elaborate golden chest. And above that, a rack of some kind.

Damian inspects the desk. Aziola inspects the dresser. And Otto and Cirrine inspect the chest.

At the chest, Damian opens the drawer of the desk and sees his reflection in the mirror. As he places a hand on the chair itself, he sees the faintest after image. In the drawer is an ink quill and parchment. On the desk, there is a silver hairbrush and it has the symbol of the sun on it. Over that is the symbol of a crescent moon, with a single star resting over head. Out of the corner of his eye is a quick image, but then realizes that there is nothing there.

**Damian's Vision of Midnight**

Then he sees it. A woman in the mirror. Her robes are white. Her skin is dark. She is writing at this desk. A pale yellow stone sitting at her side. She looks up directly at Damian. For a quick second he smiles back. Then she shakes her head, and she dips her quill within the ink and begins to write. You see the lines

*“My dear friends,*

*I am most delighted that our request has been honored and received. The last several months of our time here have been most hospitable. To which i am eternally grateful. The preps are going along magnificently. With many thanks…”*

A pair of hands appears behind her and wraps around her throat. A gauntleted hand.

“I was just daydreaming of you.” She says as she stands. Revealed to be heavily with child.

*“How is she? How is our little dream? How is our Esper?”*

She blossoms smiles. Rashemi charms tinkle around her wrist on a delicate silver chain as she slips a hand over her belly.

Karsis slowly creeps his hands over hers as he grins a wolfish smile while nuzzling her neck.

“She *is* strong.”

*Midnight’s smile wavers as she says “She’ll have to be.”*

With that, the mirror dulls over, and there is the sound of a door opening. *“I think they’ve arrived.”* she says.

*“I will go to greet them.”* Karsis responds.

Resting on the paper is a cloth is the corner of a music box.

The chest is revealed to have a box containing red maetrom and a dagger. On the desk, Ereb discovers that it has a false bottom containing a slip of paper. It contains the same letter as the one before.

**Midnight's Letter**

*“My dear friends,*

*I am most delighted that our request has been honored and received. The last several months of our time here have been most hospitable. To which i am eternally grateful. The preps are going along magnificently. With many thanks. It has been a brief time since our first arrival within the Feywild. Our hopes.*

*Our dreams. Our Espers. All gone unanswered. But we have persisted to uncover the truths buried deep here within elements of all our past, all converging. I now believe their Lords of Beasts and our Estellar are one in the same. To tell you of this news brings me great fear, and anticipation. Since the spell plague we’ve heard nothing from our gods. We’ve had no great profits. We seek to bring light to that darkness. My friends, I implore you immediately to come. Cyric believes that once these great houses, as was his great tribes unified there can be peace and answers for all of us. Though we each hale from different places, this calamity unifies all of us and I would beg your indulgence to lend aid. This is all our futures and all our peoples interest in the road ahead. May our future and our stars burn forever bright.*

*The Sun and Moon, Daughter of the Rashimi, Midnight Karsis.* "

**Aeidun Speaks of Vaeraun**

In the doorway, Aiden says

“Perhaps I can illuminate some of your questions. Indeed the call was made. It seems few still remember. There were those that came and stood together. There was a great darkness that plagued the Feywild. Karsis believed as well as led by others \*looks at Otto\* that a great amount of magical force. A great output of energy could dispel the spell plague. With that discovery, with many of the cities having fallen from the sky. The five came together, Cyric, Azune the 4th of Cormyr, Midnight, daughter of the Rashemi, Azhabul of the moon shade, and Kelvemoor of the Dalelands. As they came to stand against it, it seems that there was some sort of darkness that had spread. There was a time when the Feywild was one land. A piece of it was fragmented off. Vaeraun, the Master of Shadows.

There was a time when the world was still young. During the dawn of civilization. Groups of incredibly powerful being sailed form across the stars and came here. In those times all of humanity and the varying places were subject to the great primordial gods. The old faith. Natural deities had sprung about from primordial chaos and the sundering of O. These beings, these great Estelar, stood int he gap between the mortal and the primordial chaos. Thus was the dawn wars originally fought. My master, Meric, and I sought the histories of these Estellar. Their hidden secrets. Their past. At first we thought them one in the same. But we learned the truth. Very different. It seems there are some mysteries still yet to unravel. But we do know this. The Estellar bound those primordials to eternal prisons. Vaeraun, as best I've learned, was one of the first. Of the Eladrin created a dark union with Illoth, son of Elloth. Fought and believed in the purity of his kin. There are those who would have followed him, and they are eternally banished beneath the surface of Faerun. Further from the realm of the gods. We have not heard from any of our deities in a long time. Since the Spell plague. But we still feel their echoes. Their fingerprints on the weave.

Varraun was all but released and in a tumultuous betrayal, began to make his way out. In his desperation he split halves of himself. His primordial essence from his mortal sentience. That chaos, that raw energy found a way to take form in the Feywild, giving breath to dreams as living nightmares.

Karsis, Midnight, Azune, and the others Revian. They all sought to seal them back. These dark gods. These forgotten gods. A piece of the Fey was fragmented off within the Shadowfell. And he was indeed sealed away again. The Rashimi have powerful binding magics. They were taught to all of us. And we’ve seen the wake of all of that.

And yet, I know in some ways as much as you do. We know that there was indeed a gorup. A group I have been tracking for quite some time. This primordial chaotic magic. This chaos. It is split. The primordial gods and the Estellar will fight to consume the power of the others, until there were very few left.

Vayron is one of these primordials and this group ive been following call themselves the Cult of the Dragon.

Damian: Do you think its plausible one of these primordials was fragmented in the sealing away?

A: I think at this point I know. In order to seal it away, power had to be stripped. And yet somehow, his strength seems replenished.

D: My concern is that there seem to be several forces at work in a similar manner. One being this Blight of Baah Ah Barabas. One being this influence of Malar. And in addition these wraiths they also seem to be a corruption that spreads and consumes. Perhaps that's how some of these entities regain their power.

A:As Ao was sundered, a cascade of possibilities was created. We only can feel our fingers barely dipping into the pools of understanding, but the pool is deep and vast and outside of any thing we’ve ever experienced.

Aziola: You said the Rashemi were able to imprison him? Do you know what that prison looks like?

Aiden: Each prison I imagine would be different, but unfortunately yes I have seen it.

Azioloa: Does it appear as a Darkwood? An entity with many tentacles by a pool?

Aiden: Yes.

Aziola: Well, I’ve spoken to him. He is very interested in my name. But I can only assume its because he can gain power. That he is looking for a way to free himself.

Aiden: Yes, revealing your name allows other people to gain power over you.

Aziola: I myself have had quite a time trying to escape him.

Aiden: I have lost much to the machinations of this Vayron. To these primordial entities.

Aziola: He has wormed his way into every nook and cranny. Every tree and hole. I feel like he just needs somebody to break the chains. Perhaps a ritual of some kind will let him loose?

Aiden: This can not be allowed to happen. With every fiber of my being I will not allow this to happen.

Aziola: I might have taunted him a bit. You remember the storm? That was me. I told him we were coming for him, and that seemed to anger him quite a bit. Then the storm happened.

Aiden: It was Vayron who corrupted elements of the Batrachi with his brother. It was they that brought down the moons. If he is doing this, perhaps he is not so chained after all.

Damian: Who was his brother?

Aiden: Kozha. During the shadow epoch he betrayed his fellow primordials. It was him that turned the tide.

Damian: Do you know what happened to the Batarachi who were corrupted?

Aiden: I’m afraid not.

We discover a throne room. The throne has a magical essence to it.

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