Episode 13 - Recap

4th of Marpenoth

Cacklin’ Aggie and Yenward study the stars. Yenward learns
constellations

Centaur, Woman Warrior, Crown, Harp, Sword and Dagger, Lady
of Mystery, Dragon of Dawn, Mantis, Ox, Bear, Spider, The lightning bolt.

**Double Daggers – True**
West (Tip of the Dagger)

**Arrow of the Gods –**
True East (Tip of the Arrow)

**Serpent of the Sands**
– True South (Serpent’s Tongue)

Together they note a star in the constellation of the
Serpent that is…moving unnaturally?!

They also note an island in the middle of the dark lake.

The Sisters perform their scrying ritual. The party is
uncomfortable. If I remember right, Darius does not participate. The Sisters
say that time is like a flowing river and that they can’t 100% predict the
future. They reveal a few things:

-A flashback in which Thoss the Blackplague discovers, quite
by accident, a sinkhole on the high slope of Mt. Ilefarn, granting him access
to the Runedardath complex. **North**

-The cultists control the river crossing up ahead, to the
East and have a nearby camp where they have stolen boats docked. The camp is
heavily guarded and hides a teleportation circle which they use to travel in
and out of the mountain. **East**

-They show once more Tosk and his band camped near the Black
Helm Tower **West.** They reveal that
the easiest way to approach the tower is through the Hollow, as the natural
geography and spell defenses make an approach from the river (south) difficult
but not impossible. They intimate that convincing the questionable sane Jem
Broadheart to relinquish his lightning spear will be difficult.

They say a power is protecting Runedardath from their scrying
magic, so they cannot give anyh insight as to what waits inside.

Maybel apologizes to Darius and tells him that his blood is
special and powerful…and that she’d love to perform some tests on it sometime.
She also says that Darius’s quarry, Fariq and his followers, share similar
powers.

The players go to sleep and have visions.

Darius dreams about losing control and hurting his friends.

Kyra dreams about the island in the lake, and Eldath crying
out for help.

Coraline has another dream where she is swallowed by a
giant, green, deformed cackling face.

Yenward dreams about his youth, something most unsusual.
Yenward and several other air genasi children are playing a game with a ball
near the city’s edge. Yenward knows he isn’t supposed to be playing out here.
He and the other kids start a dare to see who will go closest to the edge to
try to catch the ball. He skirts the edge and his friend throws the ball high
over his head and before he can leap to try to catch it he hears his mother’s
voice. Yenward’s friends scatter as he watches the ball sail out past the
curling clouds and begin the long fall down. He turns to face her but her face
is veiled by shadow. His mother scolds him and tells him that he should know
better than to play by the Rim.  The
scene fades, and you wake up to fires, confusion, the flash of steel, blood,
screams, and then you are falling.

5th of Marpenoth

The clear skies from the night before have given way to an
unnatural grey pall. The clouds stretch in all directions, smooth and
featureless and somewhat ominous, like the dark lake before you. The team
cannot see the peaks of the mountains beyond the low cloud cover. The hag tree
is silent. Their pets are nowhere to be seen.

The party decides to investigate the lake.

They take a rowboat across the lake. They are harried by
some froglike creatures but with some quick thinking by Coraline and her wand
of mislead, and some illusion magic, and some heroic rowing, the team avoids
combat.  This appears to be at the top of
what used to be a hill, but most of it appears to be underwater.

They investigate the abandoned Temple of Eldath. The temple
is partially flooded and feels slimy and gross, and makes the team feel sick.
As they hurry through the wet corridors Yenward catches a glimpse of a winged
figure. As they chase the team is trapped in a flooding room and attacked by
numerous grey oozes. They figure out the hastily laid trap, defeat the oozes
and free themselves. Darius’s rapier gets partially corroded. The team is
poisoned by the foul water.

They chase the winged figure up out of the flooded hallways
to the top of the island.

They find the Angel standing at the front of a door leading
into a chamber at the top of the hill, and it points directly at Kyra and  says “You should not have come here.”