Book 5: Well...That's Not Good; Another Interlude

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## Book 5 Summary

* The party moves on and at their first stop, they find an abandoned and cleaned out fort.
* The next day, they run into two guards and an odd gnome who they won't let reenter the city because he burned several buildings down in an accident. They manage to sneak him back into the city, Arix and Artemis thinking they might be able to get him to make them something, only to find out that he doesn't make enchanted items and has no idea what they're talking about. The Traveler tells Enilasor and Arix privately that he and other gods have tried to kill him because he's an annoying pain in the ass, but no one could seem to pull it off. Enilasor tells him that since he has to leave town for his safety, maybe head for Baldur's Gate since there's a new mansion that just opened up in the fishing district. Maybe he could move in and set up shop there. They'll later learn that he's the new councilman for that district, replacing Dory, and is apparently doing well for himself.
* After leaving town and eventually finding a spot to settle for the night, the Traveler visits Enilasor who stayed up to keep watch. He tells her that she was the one cursed, not her mother, and that he tried everything to get her out of Malyn's control and away from the ritual, and then showed her year's old injuries from that night where he'd tried to help. Enilasor asks him for more on her family history since her mother didn't teach her much about them, and he says he wasn't there for a lot of it and couldn't share much. Her mother was a little too optimistic and hopeful, and given the Caretakers and no one in her family keep written records, she has nothing to go on about them and still knows almost nothing about the Wanderers. He tries to give her a bit of a hopeful pep talk and then leaves her for the night.
* Tihn and Orestes heard the conversation, neither being asleep yet, and Tihn asks what that was about, since they couldn't hear the Traveler's side of the conversation, nor see him. She tells Tihn she's not in the right headspace for talking about the graveyard but she'd tell them eventually. Everyone but Enilasor goes back to bed, or tries to, including Orestes. He wakes them up early in the morning with a nightmare, bleeding from his nose and ears and thrashing around, hurting himself in the process. They finally manage to wake him up and he tries to brush off their concerns.
* They all move on and make it to Silverymoon, where they do a bit of shopping before they go looking for Morgana's mom. They stop by a wizard's shop, where Arix gets a few spell scrolls and Enilasor asks if the man can clear Malyn's magic from the coat, and herself if he knew how. He panicked because of the horrible type of magic that was on both her and the coat, and while he couldn't get it off of her, he'd try on the coat. It would take him a week. He didn't manage to get it off. Tihn and Arix go sneaking and thieving in one of the shops and manage to get a blow dart gun for Tihn and a dagger that changes and erases memories from the one injured by it.
* They head for the Sacred Grove where the confederation is meeting to discuss letting the dwarves rejoin their council. No one but the firbolgs wants them to rejoin unless they humiliate themselves to earn it. There's a lot of arguing and eventually Morgana's mom just dismisses everyone for the evening, tired of the pettiness. Arix sends a silent message to the dwarves, asking to meet with them privately later. They meet her mother properly and she gives them a brief explanation of what happened in the past and what's happening now that's led to this nonsense. With Morgana being half-dwarf on her father's side, she was already experiencing racism because of the conflict, and now the party knows what the conflict was.
* Morgana stays behind with her mother to catch up and the others go into town.
* Morgana tells her mother about their mission, who they're after, what they're after, what they do when they get what they're looking for, and who the big bad is to them. Morgana's mother tells her a little more about the problems in the Silvermarches and then they briefly discuss the issue with Morgana's missing father. They're interrupted by a guard coming to fetch Morgana, telling her that her friends were in prison.
* The rest of the party had gone to a tavern to get alcohol to take with them to visit the dwarves outside of the city as a peace offering. They strike a deal, discuss how they could help the dwarves with the problems beneath their citadel, and then depart. With Tihn itching to burn off energy, they find the training grounds to let him and Arix spar. Arix is knocked out fairly quickly. Enilasor and Orestes get a bit drunk and have a contest to see who could make the bigger and better fire. This set the building on fire. When Morgana comes to the prison to bail them out, Enilasor, Orestes, and Artemis are singed with Orestes and Enilasor still tipsy, Arix is still unconscious, and Tihn is buzzing with excited energy. They go back to the Grove where they bunk down for the night.
* In the morning, half of the dwarves are missing, despite the party having warned them to stay behind just in case. This causes the dwarves, the party, and the council more problems and a worse argument breaks out. Morgana mentioned the Three Sisters, what the dwarves believed was the source of their problems beneath the citadel, and one of the elves laughed at the ridiculousness of being frightened by fairytales and children's stories. Annoyed, Arix used his new magic to create images of the horrors the party has seen so far, purposefully trying to scare him into backing down and accepting that things aren't what they appear, that this is very real.
* Eventually, the meeting is adjourned for the day once more and the party eventually sets off for the Citadel.
* On the road, they run across three vampires that they very quickly killed and moved on once more. The next day, a hecatoncheir almost ran them over as he fled a horror back home. They spoke with him and learned that his tribe guarded and maintained the ice dagger, but that a "lost soldier" came. He's the last of his clan, but he pleads with the party to not hurt his family. The party doesn't know if this means they were made into thralls or undead or something worse, but they promise to try and avoid it, but that the dagger has to come first or there won't be anything left of the world. He tells them where he'll be and then an argument breaks out after he leaves, leading to Orestes blurting that Azathoth is eating the souls of the dead, and that he didn't want to die until this was resolved so he could enjoy his unexistance after death. He then admits that Enilasor can't be free of the magic that ties her to Malyn without removing her soul, destroying it, and making a new one. It's that or kill Malyn. After the spat, no one speaks much for the rest of the day and into the next.

## Chapter 2: Silverymoon

Later that morning, the party finally arrived in Silverymoon. They needed to find Morgana's mother, however, the party decided to shop first to purchase supplies and sell what they've found on their journey so far. Arix and Tihn purchased (read: mostly stole) a blow-dart gun, a knife that could erase memories, and more. At a smithy, the pair were told that he couldn't do anything with the atherium they had brought him, the atherium they had collected from the robot Faldrick was piloting, because his forge couldn't get hot enough to smelt it. They would have to take it somewhere else, possibly the dwarves. In a shop run by a wizard from the local guild, the party asked about enchantments for their things, enchantments he may have already placed on supplies, and removing enchantments. Scrolls were purchased and Enilasor paid to have him remove the enchantments on her coat, along with any magical residue that Malyn left behind. After discovering what magic was on it, and on her, he panicked and frantically had her stand in a salt circle while he tried to figure out what to do. Eventually, he agreed to try his best to get rid of it, but that it would take him at least a week.
It didn't take long for the party to witness the dislike of dwarves in the city, Morgana receiving looks and snide comments. She wouldn't elaborate on why other than there was a conflict between the people of the Silvermarches and the dwarves; they'd learn more eventually when they got to the peace talks. Either her mother would explain it to them or they'd hear it from the council while they bickered. However, she did tell them that the surface races wanted the dwarves to embarrass themselves to earn forgiveness.

Finally, the party made for the Silverglen, the Sacred Grove of the Silvanus, where the council was meeting for negotiations.

Outside stood several guards, who refused them entry into the grove, and wouldn't send a message to Morgana's mother that they were there. After a back and forth between them and Morgana and Arix, she gave up and asked Arix if she could borrow Birb a few minutes to send a message to her mother instead. She explained that the guards refused to listen to her and were also being racist towards her for her dwarven heritage. The party couldn't climb the natural walls made from trees, nor could they just go passed the guards and force their way in. Birb flew up and into the grove, but he didn't return immediately. A few minutes later, the doors to the grove opened and an elegant elven woman stepped out. The guards were quick to kneel, only for the Hierophant to, far too calmly to be anything but a threat, chastise them for their behavior and language towards her daughter and the party.

She guided them inside after Birb flew off of her shoulder to land on Arix's.

Things inside are...chaotic.

Shouting back and forth, the surfacers wanted the dwarves to grovel and fulfill several other demands before the council would even consider letting them rejoin the confederation. The dwarves refused to humiliate themselves, stating that they were wasting time arguing while their people were dying from a threat "below". Couldn't this wait? The only councilman who seemed willing to forgo any public humiliation and a list of demands was the councilor for the Firbolgs.

Originally, the dwarves left and ended their alliance with the surface races when the War in Heaven began. They wanted nothing to do with it, though they did continue to supply them weapons. However, in doing so, they cut themselves off from food supplies and other resources; they didn't have an agricultural system in place, and their people have been starving now for almost twenty years now. They want to be brought back into the confederation because they need the allies to feed their people and to handle something hiding in the deep that's threatening them. The councilors said that this had no effect on them; their problem is below, not on the surface. And how do they know that the dwarves won't abandon them again as soon as the problem is fixed? Until they have some kind of assurance that the dwarves won't up and leave them at the first sign of trouble again, they don't want them back in.

On impulse, Arix and Enilasor both quietly comment about how it'll be the council's problem eventually, accidentally catching their attention. One of the dwarves demanded that the council let them speak since they seemed to have a bit of sense, and Enilasor sheepishly repeated what she'd said: that whatever is down there won't stay down there, that it'll be the surfacer's problem eventually. If they don't help now, they'll lose any future chances at resources that the dwarves could provide to help them fight against it. Of course, this only stirred them up and made it worse.
The meeting ended abruptly once the Hierophant has enough of their arguing and dismisses them.

Before they could talk to her, Arix sent a message to the dwarves, telling them to meet the party later to talk about their problem.

Morgana introduces everyone to her mother. She seems to have an idea of who Orestes is, despite him assuring her that he's no one of note, just a farmer like Arix said. She also recognizes Enilasor's last name by its relation to the Wanderers. The woman is definitely surprised to meet a Grung and an Owlfolk, stating that they're both a very long way from home.

The pleasantries out of the way, she explains the situation the council is in, and where it's trapped her in the talks since the Lord of Luruar wants nothing to do with it and asked her to handle it.

Discussion over, everyone but Morgana leaves for the rest of the afternoon.

Morgana joins her mother and the pair catch up over drinks. She tells her mother about the Books and the elder gods, that they've been traveling the last few months trying to find them and destroy them, but that there's still several more left, along with the Wards they have to fix. With the heart of the problem explained, she details Orestes's involvement with the issue along with Enilasor's experience with Malyn and the problems that's caused.

Faesatra tells them that they're more than welcome to stay as long as they needed, but that she would be unable to help them with much of anything until she has this problem solved and out of the way. The talks are going...poorly...and there are complications that are slowing down the negotiations. Mostly, that no one but the Firbolgs wish to compromise with the dwarves, and that even if the dwarves do give in to their demands, that they likely still won't let them rejoin, or that they will but with very limited involvement and assistance. She understands their caution, but she also knows that they need the strength and resources the dwarves can provide them too. Especially if what Morgana says is true and that things could get worse. They'd need the supplies to defend themselves.

The conversation moves on to more personal matters, discussing Morgana's father and Morgana's reasoning for leaving to go her own way. Her mother was still grieving heavily, even after a few decades, and with the tension between the surfacers and the dwarves, Morgana thought it would be best if she removed herself for a time to keep from hindering her mother while Faesatra tried to fix everything.

Across town, the group head for an inn after Arix suggested that they take a little alcohol with them as a gift to the dwarves to endear them to the party. If they wanted any information out of the dwarves or get the dwarves to trust them enough to let the party try to help them, they needed to sweettalk them by any means necessary.

Inside, they meet a famous author, and Orestes is embarrassed to admit that he knows about the series given how violent they are. The writer was a little upset because he hated the fame for the book series that he hated writing, and he wished he could write children's books without people focusing too much on his name and writing history. They awkwardly tried to give the dwarf some advice and encourage him but have little success.

They collect the two barrels of alcohol and leave to head outside the city gates where the dwarves were forced to camp. The bad blood between them and the surfacers meant that no one wanted to give them a place to stay and didn't trust them. Arix presents the two dwarven guards the councilmen brought with them the two barrels and asked if they could have a drink with their representatives. Of course, they're more than welcome to have some too if they'd like.

It doesn't gain the dwarves' complete trust, but it does garner them enough to speak with them on their problem.

Long ago, there were three sisters. Something corrupted them, twisted them into something foul, but no one really knows what was behind it, nor what their original purpose for being down there was. All they know is that several parties have disappeared in the caverns trying to hunt them down but none have returned. They fear that whatever is down there, if it is the sisters, won't stay there forever. They fear the monsters making their way into the citadel and killing their people...if the famine doesn't get them first.

The party and the dwarves go back and forth about payment for helping, and the party only asks that they shape the atherium in their possession into needed equipment. The only rule the representatives give them is that they can take what they like from the caverns, but they can't take anything from the walls.

Eagerly, the dwarves told them that they'd leave first thing and head back to the citadel, but Arix and Enilasor caution them against it. It might be better for them to wait for the party to come back; at least give them a week. Their reasoning was that they were going to do their best to solve the problem for the dwarves, but if they run into a problem and don't come back, then the dwarves leaving early burns what little bridge they have left with the council. Leaving only for the party to perish means that they will be proving the council right: that they will leave the moment the dwarves believe that everything is fixed. That, and they still need food. They should stay and buy time in the talks. They grudgingly agree, but make no promises.

From there, the party seeks out training grounds for Tihn and Arix to spar, the Grung antsy to fight something, while Enilasor and Orestes watch. As a joke, the Traveler provides the two with popcorn while they watch Arix and Tihn bicker over the rules of their match. After a few minutes of arguing between their respective "short person", Enilasor jokes that she and Orestes should kill time by trying to kill each other again. It leads to an awkward back and forth about the intentions of her suggestion. A few more minutes after that, she breaks her usual rule of no alcohol and asks Orestes if she can have a sip from his flask; she isn't drunk enough to watch this without help. He looks on in horror as she downs more White Death than any person safely and wisely should.

Unfortunately, the pair eventually become inebriated and decide to have a contest as to who could make the bigger fire with their magic while they waited on Arix and Tihn to finish their match. No one knows who won since they accidentally set the building on fire.

All four of them were arrested for arson and destruction of property, and Artemis was locked up with them because of association. Arix was unconscious, Tihn knocking him out cold in their fight, and Tihn was sitting on his bench bouncing with excitement after the successful match. Artemis, Enilasor, and Orestes were, unfortunately, very singed, with Artemis a bit sullen for being lumped in with the rest of them, Enilasor dozing on Artemis's shoulder, and Orestes the loopiest and chattiest anyone has ever seen him.

A guard interrupts Morgana's and Faesatra's mother-daughter time. He apologized for the interruption, but there has been an issue: a fire and the arrest of her companions.

Morgana apologizes to her mother and leaves to bail them out of jail.

Upon showing up at the prison, Morgana gets them out and leads them back to the grove to sleep it off. Orestes thinks Enilasor's dead because she's asleep on Artemis, then asks if Morgana is dead, then if he's dead. Morgana patiently tells him that no, none of them are dead. Artemis carries Arix back to the grove, Morgana lets Orestes lean on her long enough to get his balance and tells him a very short story to distract him from his panicking, Enilasor sort of leans on Artemis on she walks because she's still half asleep, and Tihn is all but skipping beside them all. When they get back, everyone crashes for the night to sleep it off.

The next morning, things with the council are worse than they were the day before. A few of the dwarves, despite begrudgingly agreeing that it would be wise to stay, are not present; they left anyway. Morgana immediately rounds on the party and asks if they know what happened and what did they do this time? She turns to question Enilasor, who, unable to lie, tells her everything that happened, along with telling the dwarves that they should stay anyway. A few more minutes pass and the party finally joins the council, which is already in session with the surfacers shouting about wanting to give up on the peace talks since some of the dwarves apparently want nothing to do with it. Again, the Firbolg Gustav tries to advocate for them, but to no avail. The dwarves that are there try to argue that the ones that left are young and foolish and that at least they are here and taking this seriously; please can they continue the talks?

There's more arguing and then finally Morgana brings up the Three Sisters as what may have caused the dwarves to split up like they have. One of the elves, described as a type of clerk or secretary, mocks the dwarves for being afraid of superstitions and fairytales rather than a legitimate, real threat. She asks him when was the last time he got out, and when had he last been to the dwarven city? He scoffed and said he gets out plenty, but why would he ever go to their city? This councilman's behavior adds to Arix's growing irritation and he asks the Traveler to help him with a few illusions.

He proceeds to show the councilman the horrors the party has fought and killed so far, saying that these things were just stories too. They shouldn't have been real, but the party has seen them, fought them, and killed them. He shows them images of Dory and his lair in the catacombs beneath Baldur's Gate, of the sacrifices in the Volar cellar, of the Ascended, and more to drive home his point that the dwarves' claims that something is down there, no matter how silly it seems to them, should be taken seriously. These threats are very real, and they're a threat to everyone, not just one kingdom or another. The councilman who'd mocked the dwarves is absolutely horrified, as are the other members of the council, much to Artemis's delight. When Arix finished, he apologized to Gustav for getting him caught up in that.

And for the final nail in the coffin for the clerk, Orestes looks at the rest of the party, silently asking if he should add on to the man's terror or not. They agree, and he asks Tihn to help share with the councilman what they've both seen from their experiences with the Books. They approach him, flanking the man, and whisper their knowledge in his ears. Even more fearful than before, he flees the room, nose bleeding from what they'd forced on him.

The council is finally dismissed, and the party ask the Hierophant where they should start. Investigating what's happening with the dwarves would be best. She can't go herself and has to stay here, but maybe they can fix at least one problem. They gather what supplies and rations they need, and then leave for the citadel.

## Chapter 3: Off to the Citadel

After leaving, Arix gets curious about the ability to steal people's spells the Traveler gave him. What was the limit? He didn't start small, and decided to see if there was anything he could do with the magic that Malyn left behind on Enilasor. He managed to "steal" Malyn's Sending spell for a few minutes, but he had to give it back to him immediately because it was hurting him. Arix released his hold on the spell with the message, "I'm letting you have this back now." This, understandably, freaked Enilasor out with how easy it is to access the thread between her and Malyn to send magic back and forth. She wants Arix to refrain from trying that again.
Further down the road, they run into three travelers who are seemingly stranded, their cart missing a wheel, and asking for a ride into the next town. Something...doesn't feel right, though. Although they said their wheel went missing, Enilasor couldn't find it when she tried to use her magic to locate it, and after the party asked a few more questions, the travelers revealed themselves to be vampires and attacked. The party was quick to get rid of them, leaving behind three piles of dust, but their victory was cut short when they searched the cart and found four dead bodies. They buried them before moving on.

Arix asked Enilasor to show him how to mend things like his cloak, both by hand and with magic, after they set up camp. She quickly stuffed her current enchanting project into her pocket and then agreed to help...only for her to rise the next morning exhausted and weak from finishing the unnamed project after their lesson.

The party packed up their things and left. They didn't get very far before there was the sound of something barreling towards them in the distance. Orestes urged everyone to get out of the cart and take cover; they didn't know what it was. Tihn and Arix helped Enilasor and Morgana get out of the way when they couldn't move quickly enough, just before a Hecatoncheir to ran passed, tearing down trees and the like on his way through.

Orestes called out to him in a giant dialect, causing the Hecatoncheir to come to a screeching halt. He looked terrified; something his size shouldn't be afraid of much...

He explained that there was something back home. A "lost soldier" had swept through his home in a hidden entrance in a cliff where his people were charged with guarding something. It took a little coaxing for him to admit that it was the frozen dagger, one of the Wards the party needed to fix. Unfortunately, he was the last of his clan, the only one to escape when the soldier came.

As proof of what the soldier was capable of, he lowered his arm for them to see a terrible gash on his arm, one that glittered with a myriad of colors. It was a wound made by something truly terrible, Orestes and Tihn said. It had to have come from whatever eldritch weapon the soldier possessed. Orestes slowly rolled up his sleeves and showed him his own scars from a similar weapon, along with the myriad of tattoos of runes and sigils that he'd place over himself as protection. Whether they worked or not wasn't said.

Enilasor and Morgana offered to heal him, but he declined, telling them that he wanted to "remember". And, wanting to see if she could help directly, Enilasor used her magic to speak his language with Orestes and asked if there was anything they could do for him. The Hecatoncheir begged them to not hurt his family, to try and spare them. They were alive, but he didn't say what happened to trap them there with the soldier. If he said that he was the last of his clan, then what happened to make them both alive and lost?

She asked where they could find him if and when they managed to reach the Ward and hopefully fix it, wanting to let him know when it was finished to give him some peace of mind. The giant gently scooped her up so she could see, and pointed eastward to the Ice Mountains in the distance; he'd settle there for now.

The party promised to do what they could, and the giant began to cry, panicking her for a moment as she tried to reach out and blot them away with her sleeve. He set her back down just as gently as he'd picked her up.

They shared a few more words with him, and then he continued on his path to the mountains, no longer leaving a trail of destruction behind him from his flight from the horrors he'd left behind.

As soon as the giant is gone Arix immediately declares that he is getting what shinies he can from the citadel and caverns during this little adventure, and then he's fucking off on his own. He doesn't want to die to some eldritch abomination posing as a knight, and unless someone knows how to prevent any chance of him getting killed whenever they finally go to fix the dagger, he's out. Orestes and the rest of the party could go take care of it if they felt like putting their asses in danger. He and Orestes argue back and forth, and Orestes tells him that yes, he's going to fight the soldier, but Arix is going to be there too, even if Orestes has to drag him there. Again, Arix says that he would rather not die.

> *Orestes, scoffing: "Get over it. Death comes for us all, buddy."*
>
>
> *Arix: "Yeah? Death will come for you too, 'buddy'."*
>
>
> *Orestes: "Yeah, and hopefully I can just live long enough to make sure that whatever happens to us after we die stops happening, so then I can have a nice, little unexistence. A little unexistence party that does not end with me getting eaten by a giant fucking eldritch monster."*
>
>
> *Arix: "Threatening! Is that what happens when you die? The Black Books eat you?"*
>
>
> *Enilasor: "Please don't tell me my mother is being eaten by an eldritch god..."*
>
>
> *Orestes: -horrified and dead silent-*
>
>
>
> *Enilasor: "Orestes...please tell me I didn't kill my mother and send her to Azathoth's stomach..."*
>
>

In the midst of the frustration, Orestes had accidentally spilled a few secrets that he'd kept from them for a while. The reason death is such a terrifying future to him is that Azathoth is devouring souls of the dead, but he did say that not everyone is eaten immediately. Enilasor lashes out at him for keeping that information from her because of her mother. Another problem was that only way to get rid of Malyn's magic would be to remove her soul, destroy it, and then make her a new one. In everything he's seen from the past, present, and future, he'd seen no other option; it contradicted what Grandfather Tree had told Enilasor before they left the High Forest. Lastly, how it all affected him. They had no idea how bad it was, how hard it is to have seen everything from all time, to know what he did. Reading the Black Book has ruined him, and there's a reason he drinks as much as he does.

Tihn slowly approaches his friend and rests a hand over his arm once Orestes finishes and everyone has gone silent and still from his outburst. The Grung, understanding the fear and trauma of their experiences, tries to provide comfort and stays at his side for the rest of the day and into the night. It's the first time he's almost cried, and driving the cart that day is really the only thing that kept everyone but Tihn from seeing how broken up he was.

After setting up camp for the night, Arix takes a seat near Orestes and Tihn and brings up the topic of his and Orestes's first kills while Tihn works on developing an antidote to the poison that coats his skin. Arix seems unbothered by his own kills, but Orestes is less enthused. He informs him that his first real and intentional kill was a fifteen-year-old boy who was possessed by a Black Book. He couldn't save him; the only way to keep him from hurting anyone was to kill him. A captain named Telgradd Hawkwave was originally in possession of the Black Book of War. The Book had given him instructions on how to build a flying Dreadnought. A cabin boy named Vordt helped Orestes sneak onto the ship where he sabotaged the ship's engine, causing a massive explosion that Orestes and Vordt managed to escape. Shortly after, they found the Book and the promise of power called to Vort. He didn't resist it, and gave in. When Orestes took the Book away and Vordt attacked him to try and get it back, Orestes acted on impulse and drew his sword, slashing the boy's throat and killing him.

For Arix, there was a house that burned down that Orestes mentioned, a house Arix had once visited to assassinate one of its inhabitants. A servant saw him leaving, and Arix thought nothing of it, believing the boy to not be much of a threat to him in the moment or in the future as a witness. He ended up being wrong, underestimating the kid. He was later caught and stripped of his title and position in his organization.

When their conversation was over, he moved on to sit with Enilasor, asking her to teach him how to enchant things. It'll take time, as he has to learn the spells first rather than just steal them from people, but she teaches him a light-enhancing spell called Twinkle, which he manages to place into a bead before the night was over.

The next morning, they pack up and continue their trip to the citadel.