Put on Your Sweater

Modokus

Monana

Ena

Minty Pineapple

Leora

Immediately after the end of the last session, Edric had Lysander call an emergency meeting with the high council of Luracia. At top speed, both men rushed to the high council chamber, with the other party members following along. Ena stayed behind with Uther and Zane to investigate the Aether chamber further.

The slower half of the party entered the dazzling city of Luracia for the first time and were stunned by the wealth and architecture they saw on display. With little delay, everyone arrived at the Hall of Conjunction, the capitol building of Luracia, a massive building hosting three spires that burned with blue, gold and green flames atop each.

Upon entering the council chamber all characters passed through a barrier that dispelled all active magic effects on them. Upon entering the council chamber, the council came into the chamber one by one for the emergency meeting. Once they were all assembled, the seven most powerful people in one of the world’s most powerful cities, they allowed Edric to recount the adventure in the hole to them. They were concerned by the appearance of such an aetheryte crystal and they all agreed an investigation was warranted.

Edric made sure to tell Callistor Thacryn, the leader of The Assembly of Connection, that House Faust should be compensated for their help. The council’s leader, Lyzanthir Naemora, leader of the Starlgiht Ring, said an investigation should be launched immediately. But he said - and was echoed by Jorma Beggali, leader of the Sacred Ring, that bringing the might of Luracia against the drow was premature.

Edric asked the council to lend some of their magical armory to the party, but their request was initially denied. Edric then offered to trade items from the armory in exchange for the secret to creating living steel. Davis Poren, leader of the Artificer’s guild, Immediately urged that this offer be accepted, and the council agreed.

The investigation was launched and the leader of the Merchant’s guild, Anasia Merrigold, took the party to the Luracian armory, where once of her assistants, Penelope Calianth, to take the party to vault 3, where they would each be allowed to take one item. Penelope took the party past dozens of vaults, all locked with various magical and mechanical barriers before coming to a vault that she unlocked using a precise combination of movements with the key, before the door shrank to the size of a quarter and slid into a slot in the floor.

Everyone in the party selected a single magic item, with Monana making sure to get one for Ena as well, with Penelope’s permission, and were escorted back out of the armory, and wished a pleasant day.

With that completed, the party left Luracia again and headed to a tavern to rest. While there, Leora heard a voice inside her head that spoke and asked her about her encounter with the drow in the chamber below the city. The voice asked if they had fought a drow or a sharar-kai. Leora identified the enemy as a drow, and the voice seemed mildly disappointed. A few moments later, Lykus, the gith worshiper of Be’Torn emerged from the back of the tavern and left.

Edric immediately activated his armor and followed as stealthily as he could, remaining unnoticed by Lykus as he followed him to another tavern where the worshippers of Be’torn were staying. Lykus stated to his companions “It wasn’t him.” and sat down before Edric approached. Edric was forthright with them and they showed the same courtesy. They told Edric that they were hunting a shard of purple aether, but they had been under the impression it was a tenth the size the crystal Edric encountered was. Edric promised to give them full access to help with the investigation, and upon hearing this, all of them headed out to investigate the chamber while Edric returned to the party.

Minty Pineapple used this time to go and buy yarn and a crochet needle and began making hats.

Everyone took a long rest and returned to the chamber after most of the investigation was over. In the hole Lykus was still here, investigating the altar. Lysander was still present, while an elf wizard, a human cleric, a dragonborn knight, and the same tiefling who offered to read their fortune when they entered the city were all down there as well.

Upon speaking with the elf, who introduced herself as Sabriel, Edric learned that opening the door would be incredibly difficult without the password as drow are excellent with magic and paranoid to boot. Lysander gave Edric a dossier that would magically update itself with all of the information about the investigation so he could stay up to date. But unfortunately, the only leads they had were in attempting and aura filtration to see what plane the aetheryte crystal was phasing in from. But it would be difficult as that much aether’s presence drowns out the effects of another plane’s presence, like trying to pinpoint a whisper in a tornado.

It was as close to a dead end as it could be.

At this point, Eero wrote a letter to Monana, explaining that he was searching for his family, who were being hunted by an enemy who might be connected to this crystal. Monana responded by asking aloud “What enemy?” Which was enough to grab the attention of many people in the chamber. Eero mentioned his dreams about the aetheryte to Lysander who suggested they tell the Oracle’s guild about his dreams to see if the oracles could use his dreams to find a lead.

Surprisingly, upon delivering this news via sending stone to the Oracle’s guild, he was told to deliver Eero directly to Ollana Linege, the high councilor in charge of the Oracle’s guild. Eero wasted no time heading to the Hall of Divination, where he was taken by an assistant into a room where he was asked to remove all items he had ever committed violence with and leave them there. He was told to wash his hands in holy water, to wear a white cloak dotted with shimmering blue stars, and to remove his shoes. Upon doing so, he was escorted to the final level of the hall where the door was opened for him and he saw a swirling nebula of midnight blue mist swirling with white stars.

Eero stepped through, unsure of what to expect as he suddenly floated aimlessly into the thick mist. Moments later, he heard the voice of Ollana Linege reassure him his doubts were not a weakness. Moments later, he felt himself pulled into the center of the spherical room, where a massive round mirror floated like a floor in the eye of the gently swirling nebula around him. He stood on the mirror and saw Ollana sitting on the other side, dressed in the same robe that matched the swirling nebula around her, that she had worn to the council meeting. But now it seemed to be emanating the nebula, projecting it out into the rest of the room like smoke.

She asked him what he knew of his dream in his mind, in a telepathic way so he could easily talk back. He asked about his family, but she deflected his question, seeming much more interested in his dreams about the aetheryte. She told him that something was making divination in the Skolzheim mountains impossible, and that something was what had attacked him in his dream two nights ago.

Eero asked what could be responsible for doing that, and he was shown a vision of two creatures. A massive, slender shadow with white eyes and horns standing twice as tall as a tree. And a gnarled, decaying fey-like creature with long teeth and shadows for eyes. But then, he saw a third figure. It was a shadow version of himself. The vision became lucid and Eero suddenly found himself thrown into combat with this shadow of himself. Eero fought against this shadow, which used a misty technique to hurt Eero back whenever he struck it. But even so, Eero was too quick and he managed to grapple the shadow and put his sword through its neck.

As he did, the creature’s visage dropped and he was looking at a tabaxi with black fur and green eyes. A figure he had never seen before. He was suddenly out of the vision and back in his own body, with no marks from the fight.

Ollana explained that he had discovered another presence tied to this divination blocking, that had latched onto him like a parasite, and here in the hall, through this battle in his mind, he had managed to separate himself from it, and she was able to banish it. She was unsure where this presence had retreated to, but she lost track of it when it entered the Skolzheim mountains.

Shr told Eero that she would try to find his family, but they were beyond her sight, which made her suspect they were in that divination dead-zone. She also told him that if he could find and defeat the source of this magical deadening, she would divine the location of his family for him. Lastl, she gave him a ring of mind shielding with a blue gem and a compass-rose star on it to keep the shadow from latching onto him again.

Eero was escorted out to join everyone else again.

Upon finding no leads in the underground chamber, everyone agreed to help Eero, only after Minty Pineapple made everyone hats of varying quality, which Sabriel refused to wear and the dragonborn knight took Eero’s off of his hands for him. At this point, the party exited the hole and decided their best bet would be to head to the SKolzheim mountains so see if they could get another lead on the Aetheryte crystals.

At this point Lykus approached the group and requested to come with them as his own group currently had no leads. Everyone was hesitant and he offered to leave while they made a decision. Monana cast Augury and drew the cards, seven of blades, crossroads, and skull. Gaining both weal and woe. Eventually the party decided that Lykus likely had ulterior motives, but they agreed to let him come along.

The next morning the party used the last of their gold to buy horses and a carriage for the 100 mile trek north to the mountains. Lykus brought his own armored horse with black fur and red eyes, which Edric immediately suspected was magical in some way. Lykus asked who the leader was, and was disappointed to find their party had no official structure. Eventually got the party to give him the role of protecting Minty in battle and an established marching order.

Minty made Lykus a sweater which he adamantly refused to wear, ignoring her pleas and requests the entire first day of the journey. A group of potential bandits decided not to mess with the party as we passed them.

Before bedding down for the night, Lykus offered to let Eero hang onto his sword if it would make Eero feel better. Eero thanked him, but refused.

Then, that night, during first watch, Edric noticed a man in armor sneaking up on the camp. He used a light infusion and tossed a light into the woods to reveal the man. Modokus woke up and spotted another man approaching him from the woods. Modokus hastily signaled to Edric that these men were to die and he sprang into action. Using the new magical item he had received from the Luracian armory, Modokus summoned a shadow claw from his hand and slashed his attacker badly, dealing the single highest damaging turn so far this campaign with 39 damage in a single turn.

His attacker used a blood maledict, hurting Modokus back in the process. He lit his sword on fire using blood from his own hand and attacked Modokus, barely missing his second swing. The party leapt into a fight with a group of 7 people who were attempting to ambush them. Lykus proved to be a capable combatant, cuting one enemy Edric had already hit before cleaving him in two. Ena finished off the blood hunter fighting Modokus and the attackers began to flee as quickly as they had arrived. Monana managed to hit one with a levitation spell to keep him suspended in the air, while Edric convinced another to drop his weapons. This man told Edric that they were hired by the blood hunter, and he was sorry for disturbing us. Edric let himgo after taking his weapons.

Modokus showed the party a medallion the blood hunter was wearing, indicating he was a member of the Blood Shepherds, an ancient order of monster slayers who dated their origins back to the First Convergence. Nowadays they still mostly hunt monsters, but some of their orders branch out to kill whoever, as long as the pay is good. This man’s medallion was of a panther’s face with two squid tentacles cross-crossed above it, marking him as a blood shepherd of the Tourama (Displacer Beast). On his person the party found 60 gold, a silvered longsword, and a contract.

The contract was a standing contract asking for the death of the person bearing a tatoo that looks like a circle with two bites taken out of either side; a tattoo Modokus has between his shoulder blades. The contract is for 18,000 gold, an absurd amount of money for a single hit.

There, the session ended, with the party standing over the dead bounty hunter, looking to Modokus for some sort of explanation.

## Loot

* 1 Silvered Longsword
* Blood Shepherd Medallion (Tourama)
* 60 Gold