Brave New World • Chapter 06

## Dark Omens

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### Thyrian Coast*(30th of Riferen, 4E 776)*

With final preparations in place, the party sets sail with Eddie and their crew. Their first day of sail goes fairly uneventfully, though foggy conditions make travel difficult and slow them down.

The group inspects the patch of corruption they found in Evendur's room and discuss their options. They ask Ellie to craw into the ballast compartment to inspect it from below and see if its spreading. While there, she plants a few grenades "just in case". Ultimately, they decide to leave the corruption there and note if it spreads, which so far it did not seem to be doing.

### Open Waters*(1st of Venn, 4E 776)*

The next day, the weather is clear and progress is quick. By the mid afternoon, they catch sight of a trio of castaways on floating debris. Fearing a trap, they cautiously send out a rescue party. Fortunately, the castaways are just survivors from an attack, and not bait for something else. Only two of the sailors are alive, and only one is conscious.

Upon questioning the most lucid of the two that are alive, they discover that their ship (outbound from Lavente) had been attacked Seafolk Coalition forces, which had acquired seaworthy vessels and were patrolling the area. They also learn that the ships are crewed by some other seaborne race that they're not familiar with.

That evening, when Evendur returns to his room, he is confronted by Balthamos. The devil appears fraught, and is upset at losing track of Lionel. He demands that Evendur tell him where he was, and rants about the myriad of problems this deal has run into. Ultimately, he leaves Evendur with the reminder that the clock was running and their time was limited.

While going upstairs to warn the others, Evendur realises that a ghostly apparition of the exact same sort that was following Lionel now appeared to be following him. In this case however, the apparition has the same form as Lionel, albeit with a veiled head.

### Open Waters*(2nd of Venn, 4E 776)*

The next day, with a drizzle pouring down across the sea, the group discusses matters about Balthamos, Lionel, and the apparition that is now following Evendur. Evendur attempts to contact Balthamos again, suspecting that the apparition might be his doing. This does not turn out to be the case, but Balthamos is intrigued by the matter.

Balthamos himself cannot see the apparition, and has no idea what it is. During the conversation, Evendur discovers that the library Lionel had been visiting might in fact be the Curator's realm being assaulted by forces from the Slip, a prospect with which Balthamos appears thrilled. They reach no conclusions, but some pieces fall into place.

Over the course of the day, with a new spell at his disposal, Oondak communes with the Earthmaven and tries to find some answers. He begins by asking a few questions about Ironstrong-4's brother, which yield no result except vague maybes. After that, he spends time trying to help Evendur unravel the mystery of Lionel's whereabouts. They discover some answers, but the most worrying is that the Earthmaven appears to know something about the apparition following Evendur, and appears frightened of it.

The investigation is cut somewhat short by a shout from atop decks, where Eddie appears to have spotted a trio of ships following them. They surmise them to be Seafolk Coalition vessels, and realise that they'll catch up eventually. Calling all hands on deck, the crew prepares for a fight.

Through careful manoeuvring, aptly used spells, and a reckless boarding via teleport by Evendur, Gaeldrim, and Yuli, the group overcomes the Seafolk Coalition ships, sinking the two smaller ones and capturing the larger third. They find a group of halfling slaves in the survivng vessel, which they free.

They spend the rest of the day resting and deciding what to do with the surviving crew of the third ship, which is made up of a strange goblinid species they do not recognise. Their options include crippling the ship and letting it go, killing the crew and resurrecting them as undead, or trying to convince them to join them willingly. Ultimately, they decide to first have a proper conversation with the leader of the survivors the following day, requiring a spell to do so since they do not share a common tongue.

### Open Waters*(3rd of Venn, 4E 776)*

The following morning, with Oondak helming the conversation, the group has a talk with the leader of the crew they captured. The creatures, which they disccover are called koalinth, are part of the Seafolk Coalition, and the one they talk to is initially very aggressive in his words, refusing to bow to their requests.

"*You landwalkers...you are all the same. An armed ship invades our waters. And you expect us to, what? Stand aside? Let you do as you please? Your kind has oppressed us for centuries. You claim the land for your own, yes? We cannot step on it without being butchered in the sand. Even when our homes are taken, and we have nowhere to go. Even when our people are captured, killed, turned into monsters that eat their own kind, and we are forced to flee. Even then, you will not let us take the small parts of land we need to survive. No. The land is yours, and you have claimed it. But that is not all. You must claim the sea as well. Your ships. Your gods. Nothing is left for us. Enough is enough. Slaughter us if you must. Praksis has shown us the path to salvation, and we would gladly die for his dream. Our dream.*"
 ― Tovuluk

Though tempers flare for a few minutes, the two sides eventually reach a compromise. The party concedes to giving the koalinth back their ship, though they keep the slaves they rescued, while the koalinth escort them to the borders of Seafolk Coalition territory and ensure no other ships attack them. The leader of the koalinth, whose name is Tovuluk, seems surprised by the concessions showed to him and his people. He promises to bring their names to Praksis, and the party arranges for the future option to negotiate peace terms through Marsilio Di Angeli.

With their escort, the crew of *The Skeksis* continues to sail northeast, eventually leaving behind the coast and making good headway under the fair weather. That evening, they gather to begin discussing their options for the approaching new moon, and the expected return of Abbie Walker and the drowned. They make some plans, and discuss contingencies for surviving the onslaught.

After the conversation, Evendur heads downstairs to his room, where he finds a smear of blood leading through the ajar door. Warily, he enters, and finds inside an unexpected sight: Lawrence Brooks, with a wound in his side, bleeding out over his carpet. Lawrence passes out moments after from loss of blood, though his last words express surprise at seeing Evendur.

"*Well...hell...*"
 ― Lawrence Brooks

Acting quickly, Evendur retrieves Oondak, and the two identify that Lawrence has been poisoned by what they presume to be Wraithcoil, a poison that inhibits healing magic. Thanks to some quick thinking, Oondak manages to stall the spread of the poison and keep Lawrence from the brink of death, but they are unable to cure the ailment that night.

Meanwhile, Ironstrong-4, fearing that trouble might follow, instructs Eddie to rouse the crew and continue their travel through the night, in the hopes of outrunning anything that might be following. A tense night follows, though a quiet one, and thankfully nothing pursues Lawrence onto the ship as he remains unconscious.

### Open Waters*(4th of Venn, 4E 776)*

Rising early, Oondak prepares his spells the next morning and sets about healing Lawrence; first by burning out the poison, and then by fully closing and curing the wound that they had sewn shut the night before. Though no longer dying, Lawrence remains in a coma for the time being, and Oondak figures there was nothing to do except wait for him to recover.

While the ship continues on its way for the day, much of the crew tired from the night's travel, Evendur, Yuli, and Ironstrong-4 gather below decks to continue work on deciphering Lionel's notes on planar. They make headway, though their efforts are generally fragile and unstable for the time being. Evendur and Yuli manage to establish connections with each other, with the latter causing Evendur some psychic pain due to her strange breed of magic. In doing so, they push past the mental barriers that protect their internal arcana, just as Lionel described doing in his early attempts at planar.

Finally, Ironstrong-4 attempts to use planar to reach out to a different plane, using Lionel's shattered gameboard as a tuning focus. In doing so, he reaches inward to break through his mental barriers the same way the others had. Evendur helps by providing an additional surge of arcana to increase the chances of reaching their extraplanar target, and in doing so is inside Ironstrong-4's mind when his barriers break. He sees the barriers as two separate spheres, overlapping but separate, with the flames of Ironstrong-4's consciousness burning inside, one brighter than the other. He sees Ironstrong-4 push through that barrier, shattering the spheres and allow the flames to flare and collide in a flash of magic, and instinctually recoils before his own mind is caught in the conflagration and burnt out.

When he opens his eyes, Evendur finds that Ironstrong-4 has shut down and is in an unresponsive comatose state. Worried that things might have gone very wrong, the group enlists the help of Ellie, who has some passing knowledge of warforged. She informs them that Ironstrong-4's personality core was releasing immense amounts of heat, light, and static, to the point of possibly damaging the internal clockwork. From her investigation, she surmises that there were two separate clusters of arcana in the core currently trying to extinguish each other, and causing a large release of wild magic as a result, almost like a body would fight against an infection through fever. She also tells them there was very little she could do to fix it without wiping the core and removing all traces of the data corruption that seemed to be causing the issue.

In an effort to make sure Ironstrong-4's brain doesn't melt out of his body, they extract the core and leave it to cool in a cold bucket of seawater, fully shutting down Ironstrong-4's physical framework until the core could resolve its own internal problems.

### Elsewhere*(???)*

While the rest of the group goes to sleep dreading the next night, Ironstrong-4 drifts into a feverish unfamiliar dreamscape. He sees visions of a garden, familiar voices from the night he died, and ultimately fends off an attempt by his own mind to quarantine the two fractured parts of his soul, Nicolaos and Ironstrong. When at last the two of them wake, they find themselves aboard the ship in dual control of a single body, though their surroundings are eerily empty and quiet.

"*I thought it would be best to put you somewhere familiar.*"
 ― The Ashmaiden

They discover this to be another vision, a space in between life and death where their souls are stalled by the goddess of fate and death, the Ashmaiden. She speaks to them of their past, of the unravelling of their souls, and tells them that their condition now was deteriorating. She suggests she could help, allowing their two personalities to coexist, if they were in exchange to help her protect reality.

"*Understand this: I am the goddess of Fate. The tapestry is mine to witness. To understand. To see. And I see...everything. I see the hole your sacrifice left. The empty space where a man you once cared for deeply ceased to be. I see the tattered threads your people are bound by, the broken fragments that were once whole. Yearning to be free, to be one again. Every choice, every breath, every life and every death. I see them all. Please do not think I exaggerate. I see* everything*. And so, it is what I have* not *seen that scares me. I have noticed...changes. Discrepancies. Things that have changed where they shouldn't have. Little things. Minute changes, here and there. They are difficult to catch. It is like looking at a clear pond and seeing ripples, but you cannot spot the stone that was dropped. Your friend, Lionel Forrester. His disappearance is one such ripple, and I cannot tell neither its cause nor its meaning. Someone, somewhere, somehow, is playing a game on a board too large to comprehend. And we are unwitting pieces, that I fear may be on the side that is losing.*"
 ― The Ashmaiden

After some deliberation, the two parts of Ironstrong-4 agree with the Ashmaiden's offer, and are returned to reality. They thank the goddess before leaving, but she responds only that she wasn't doing this for them.

### Open Waters*(5th of Venn, 4E 776)*

Early the next morning, while the group wakes and begins planning for the upcoming new moon, they realise that Ironstrong-4's core has stopped overheating. Tentatively, they return it to the body, wherein Ironstrong-4 wakes with his two selves now both present at a time. Relieved at his return, the group returns to making their final preparations for the night with renewed vigour. Their plan is to sail through the night, fending off boarders and keeping Yuli as safe as possible at the heart of the ship.

Over the course of the afternoon, the sky begins to darken. Rain clouds gather above, and the suns are blotted out by a thick grey canvas that spreads into the horizon. Within an hour, the day turns into a low perpetual twilight, and with that twilight comes the mist. Low at first, crawling across the ocean like a carpet, curling around the waves and the base of the ship like fingers reaching outwards. It becomes eerily quiet. The splash of water against the hull and the hushed muttering of the crew all there is to break the silence. Moods sour. Nerves begin to flare, and anticipation builds for what all can tell is coming.

As the day fades into evening, the mist swallows the ship whole. Curtains of fog tower around it, and out here on the ocean they seem unchecked and fearless. No fire or lantern holds them at bay. Tendrils seep across the deck, along the rigging and up the sails, until everything is a claustrophobic array of silhouettes and shadows in the mist.

Night falls, and the crew all wait, weapons at hand, not daring to speak and barely daring to breath. Until at last, the mists begin to move. The drowned launch an all out offensive against the ship, headed by the yet again returned form of Abbie Walker and an ever more powerful host of monstrosities from the depths. The fighting is desperate, and the ship is almost sunk, but with the help of a newly awakened Lawrence Brooks and a strong strategic defence, the party manages to defeat the drowned and save the ship.

### Open Waters*(6th of Venn, 4E 776)*

In the aftermath of the fighting, with many sailors and marines dead and the ship badly damaged, the group sets about salvaging what they can. Once things have stabilised, and the ship is set back on a slow course towards Haley Isle, they all gather in the galley with Brooks to have a conversation.

The latter reveals that his arrival on the ship was no more than a coincidence, having apparently had a teleportation mishap while fleeing from a confrontation with the Myriad. Lawrence tells them that he'd been trying to track down Charles Morgan, and had followed him to Invinze, the Edraxian capital. He believes that the Myriad was up to something in the city, but couldn't find out what before being forced to escape with his life.

"*I might’ve stuck my nose into places folk didn’t take too kindly to. Had to beat a hasty retreat, as it were. Must’ve gotten distracted. Wound up here instead. Lucky me. Those Myriad fuckers...they’re up to somethin’. I have a sneakin’ suspicion they’re behind the rebellions in Varais. And they’re definitely fiddlin’ their fingers around Edraxis...*"
 ― Lawrence Brooks

The discussion turns to the party and their goals. Lawrence seems very interested in their talk of strange artefacts from the past, and tells them that a number of ruins similar to the one they had found had seemingly been discovered across Almeras, not least of which one near Varlesans. He also points them to an area being called the Desolation, which aligns with a name some in the group have heard before. According to Lawrence, the area seemed to have been the centre point of some great calamity, the effects of which still persist to this day. Archaeological expeditions were being set up to investigate the sizeable region and its clustered ruins, and Lawrence says he could potentially get them an in with one of the expeditions if they promised to give him first bid on important artefacts they found inside.

Eventually, Lawrence departs to report to "the Madam", teleporting off the ship via teleportation circle. Before he leaves, he gives Evendur a circle address to a safehouse of his in Winterkept, just in case.

### Haley Isle*(6th of Venn, 4E 776)*

By the late morning, the ship comes into view of Haley Isle, making way towards the small town of Sandpoint. Limping their way into port, the crew make berth with relief and set about organising preparations for the next leg of their journey: repairs, recruitment, and sale/purchase of trade goods. While Eddie heads off to the main tavern to begin business, the rest of the group venture to the flea market to spend some of their profits from the trip. Here they purchase spell components, ammunition, as well as some other supplies.

While browsing through the market, Jendora and Evendur also spot a poor-looking peddler that has in his possession a strange tube-like object of the same cerulean blue crystal they'd seen on the relic they were pursuing. The peddler appears to be unaware of the object's origin, and sells it to them for pennies. The curious object appears inert, and is covered in dried mud and grime that would take some time to clean off.

Later that day, Jendora, Evendur, Yuli, and Gaeldrim also visit a machine shop owned by a pair of kobolds, Tick and Tuck. The odd, somewhat manic, duo own an underground factory, operated by an eccentric assortment of clockwork drones. Seemingly adept artificers and chemists, they sell the group a number of objects, including a custom made draconic ring for Evendur, and an experimental rifle for Jendora, with the promise that Jendora would use the rifle to generate battle data for the kobolds and report back on its efficacy.

In the meantime, based on a potential lead from the Ashmaiden, Oondak and Ironstrong-4 make their way to the fort, hoping to find there a shrine or religious personnel of some nature that could assist with "cleansing their soul", in the hopes this would rid Ironstrong-4 of the spectre that was watching him. They speak to a priest of Yohr, who is unable to help them much given his expertise being more in works of metal, and return to the ship having made little progress in their plight.

Meanwhile, over at an inn down by the docks, patrons have begun to gather for the evening meal. The smell of roasting fish, potatoes, strong coffee, and of course wine and brandy, permeates the air. Raucous laughter, swearing, cheers, and general drunken revelry fills the cosy interior of the inn, and up on a small stage off to the side, a solitary figure is sitting quietly on a stool, tuning the strings of a finely made lute. The stranger, going by the name of Finn, draws the attention of the crowd with an incredible performance mixing music and illusory magic, and takes the poor folk of Sandpoint on a short imaginary trip to far of lands and distant sagas.

After a succesful night performing, Finn heads to the bar, where he runs into a breathless woman in fine clothing who seems immensely excited at meeting another musician, and impressed at his level of talent. The woman, named Calisca da Vigo, informs him she is on the way to Evergreen Academy in Westrhinn to study violin. Finn offers to visit the next day and give her some pointers, to which she readily agrees.

Shortly after she leaves, Finn is also approached by a very drunk Eddie, who asks him if its true that he was looking for passage across the ocean. WhenFinn responds in the affirmative, Eddie offers him the services of *The Skeksis*, and takes him to meet the crew. After a brief discussion, the party agrees to talk to Finn further tomorrow and decide on the exact stipulations of passage, as well as payment, and Finn returns to the inn for the night.

Wary of the second day of the new moon, the party decides to avoid further trouble by sleeping away from town on the far side of the bay, camping out in the open. Their hopes of avoiding conflict however are quickly dashed. Yuli's dreams are troubled with the same nightmare she'd had before, at Decime. A ship adrift in open waters. A vast ocean without land on the horizon. A bottomless void into which she plummets. Darkness that swallows stars, and an old, fathomless presence shifting in the deep.

"*WARBRINGER. WHY DO YOU STILL RESIST. I WOULD MAKE YOU A CHAMPION OF THE ABYSS. MY CHAMPION. ACCEPT MY GIFT. GIVE YOURSELF TO THE SEA. TAKE WHAT YOU DESIRE. POWER. REWARD. REBIRTH.*"
 ― The Voice in the Deep

"*VERY WELL. RESIST. STRUGGLE. I WILL DROWN THIS WORLD AROUND YOU. ENGULF EVERY SOUL. FLOOD EVERY CITY. AND WHEN THEY SINK BENEATH THE WAVES, THEY WILL CURSE YOUR NAME. WITH THEIR LAST BREATH, THEY WILL REMEMBER. WHO. LET THEM. DROWN.*"
 ― The Voice in the Deep

Bells begin ringing at the fort. Screams come from the town, and even as the party rushes across the water, fires begin to spread through Sandpoint. Finn, waking to the smell of smoke, rushes out of the inn and comes face to face with the drowned burning their way into town. Slinging spells as best he can, he retreats to the waterside, where he runs into the rest of the group fighting another massive colossus from the depths. Though the group defeats the worst of the creatures yet again, the town itself is devastated. More than half of it has burned down, and hundreds are wounded or dead.

Under Oondak's direction, the group with Finn in tow sets about helping where they can. They take the wounded up to the fort, which had also seen harsh fighting. They speak with the commander of the contingent, Captain Rogers, and set about tending to the injured and clearing the debris from the town. The night is a long and tiring one, but when morning comes the worst has passed and Sandpoint has, just barely, survived.

### Haley Isle*(7th of Venn, 4E 776)*

Returning to their ship, which appears to have gone untouched, the group retreats to their rooms for much needed rest, planning to discuss their next steps when they wake. Finn, having no other place to sleep, stays with them, for which he is grateful.

Before he can go to sleep, Evendur hears a distant melody echoing down the docks. A slow, mournful tune that brings back memories of a different lifetime. A violin playing by the sea. Sunrise over the ocean. Thoughts of home, love, and loss. Almost in a trance, drawn by the music, he leaves the ship and heads towards the source of the music.

"*You pass buildings reduced to smoking ruin. Ships, sunken in the bay. Bodies, still lying where they were cut down. But none of it matters to you, the song is all there is. Until you come at last to a small ship, nestled between two piers, charred with soot but relatively untouched. And there you see her. As beautiful as the day you left her. Sitting at the prow of the ship, cross-legged, eyes closed. A beautiful, familiar, violin nestled against her chin, dark wood trimmed with hints of silver and gold. Notes wavering on the chill morning air.*"
 ― The Storyteller

Evendur walks onto the ship in a daze, towards the woman he had once pledged to marry: Calisca da Vigo. The music stops. Calisca turns towards him, and though she does not recognise him at first due to his deeply rugged appearance from the hard few months he had led, when he speaks all of that seems to melt away and time seems to freeze.

"*Evendur?*"
 ― Calisca da Vigo

Shock immediately turns to concern, and Calisca leads Evendur hurriedly to a cabin before he is seen by her father's men. She tells him that her parents still believe him to be guilty of murdering his parents, and are worried about him coming to finish the job by killing her.

"*A lot happened after...you know. Mother and father, they...I tried to tell them it couldn't have been you. You would never, I knew that. But they didn't want to listen. They were worried you'd come back. Finish the job. Kill* me*. After a while, when the House of Hollows put out the call for your head. Even I started to doubt. I'm ashamed to admit it, but I wondered. I wondered could it be true? Could I really have known so little? Please forgive me. It all happened so fast. I was scared, confused... even a little angry, I think.*"
 ― Calisca da Vigo

In the small room, the two have a tearful and heartfelt conversation, by the end of which they decide it would be better for them to not be in contact for a while, while Evendur clears his name. Despite that, Calisca asks him to stay for at least a while longer, and the two spend a few hours together while they still can.

"*Stay. A while longer, at least. Please...stay.*"
 ― Calisca da Vigo

In the meantime, Ironstrong-4 had followed Evendur through the ruins of the docks, was keeping an eye on the unknown ship he'd ended up boarding. Unaware of who Evendur was meeting, Ironstrong-4 grows concerned and tries to talk his way onto the ship. He is rebuked by Alfred, Calisca's caretaker, who informs him that the lady did not wish to be disturbed. Determining that Evendur was taking too long to re-emerge and overhearing someone casting spells (Evendur's less than stealthy efforst to teleport out unseen), Ironstrong-4 decides to storm the ship and retrieve Evendur. He breaks past the guards, taking care not to harm any of them but doing some damage to the ship as a result. Naturally, Ironstrong-4 finds no sign of Evendur, though he does run into a very startled Calisca (who does not know him, or vice versa), and is subsequently subdued by the ship guards and imprisoned by the means of null magic cuffs.

Back at the ship, Yuli struggles with continued nightmares. The same dream: a ship adrift, a sunless sky, a misted abyss, and a seething anger from a creature far beneath the depths. She wakes drenched in sweat, the only solace being the familiar voice and presence of Ynalthed shielding her towards the end of the dream, telling her once again to reach the Desolation.

"*And in that anger, that untamed wrath, you catch a glimpse...a glimpse of what is begun. You hear drums. A heartbeat. A cadence. A call to war. To extinction. You see seas heave and churn. You see clouds gather, black as the deepest night, thundering with molten fire. And the sea answers in kind, ice and water rising to swallow the land. The earth trembles, and death crawls through its veins. Already it has started. Already it festers. Anger directed. Led. Tempered by something distant. Something cold. Something insidious. Something that sees.*"
 ― The Storyteller

When they wake later that evening, they find Ironstrong-4 missing, and are about to start searching for him around town when Captain Rogers, the commander of the fort, comes down to speak with them and inform them that Ironstrong-4 had been imprisoned for assaulting a civilian ship. The group heads up to the fort, finding Ironstrong-4 in a somewhat drunken state due to the effect of the null magic cuffs he is still wearing. After clarifying what had happened, they convince Rogers to let Ironstrong-4 leave the jail, on condition of him remaining confined to the ship and wearing the cuffs for the duration of his stay in Sandpoint.

They return to the ship, and spend the rest of the day recovering from the ordeal of the past few days. Evendur spends some time inspecting the artefact that Jendora recovered from the peddler, finding it to be inert and non-magical, though certainly of similar technology as his tensor and the relic they were pursuing.

In the meantime, a still groggy Ironstrong-4 begins to hatch a plan to establish a group leader, in the hopes of resolving the issues the party still had with making decisions and choosing singular objectives to pursue. Realising that nobody in the group reasonably had all the best qualities necessary to lead, he proposes a joint leadership position to Evendur and Gaeldrim. Both, though hesitant, eventually agree to give it a shot, and decide to present the idea to the remainder of the group the following day. Felren is deeply supportive of the idea, and encourages Gaeldrim to take up his rightful mantle of leadership, quelling any opposition by force if necessary.

That night, Yuli's dreams are once again haunted by the same nightmare, and she has trouble sleeping. She brings up the problem to Gaeldrim, but has no idea how to fix it other than continue down the road she is already on.

### Haley Isle*(8th of Venn, 4E 776)*

The next morning, Ironstrong-4 brings forward his proposal to the group as a whole, including a befuddled Finn who is dragged into the conversation despite not knowing any of the others for longer than a day or two. Though many in the group are sceptical, and a tense discussion ensues, a unanimous vote in favour of establishing Evendur and Gaeldrim as party leaders is held, at the end of which a joyful Gaeldrim looks to Felren for approval. Instead of the familiar, gruff, spectral figure however, he finds instead an unfamiliar spectre of a lithe, female leonin crouched on the tabletop, looking curiously around the room.

"*Well...this is all* very *interesting...*"
 ― Elaria Sandrunner

The spectre, who calls herself Elaria Sandrunner, turns out to be another of Gaeldrim's ancestors, and is in fact Felren's granddaughter. The two don't entirely see eye to eye, with Felren being a rigid traditionalist where Elaria is more carefree. Gaeldrim, now with two bickering voices in his head, tries to make sense of their directions and advice.

"*You have brought me far from home, Gaeldrim With-No-Name. But if you need my help, or even my guidance, I will give it.*"
 ― Elaria Sandrunner

Meanwhile, in the aftermath of the leadership discussion, the group scatters to various ends. Oondak and Finn head up to the fort and ask Captain Rogers to send whatever warnings he can of the imminent threat from the ocean. He also sends with them a letter detailing the same to ensure their words have some weight when they reach their destinations.

Afterwards, Finn takes Oondak some ways out of town for a private chat. Here, the two have a heart to heart where Oondak details the many threats that the group faces, and the truth behind their journey. In exchange, Finn reveals his true nature as a dhampir to Oondak, and even undergoes the gruelling transformation into his vampiric form.

Gaeldrim prepares dinner for the crew that evening to celebrate their survival at Sandpoint and to wish for good luck on their future journeys. With their supplies all purchased, and repairs well underway, the crew will be ready to depart across the ocean in a couple of days.

That night, nightmares plague Yuli's dreams once more. Though the dream begins the same, this time there is a visible difference. The raging sea is filled with corpses, hundreds and hundreds, of all ages and species. All dead and bloated with blackened eyes. Without moving their lips, they all chant the same words at Yuli, while always something watches in the distance.

"*Warbringer...Warbringer...you did this to us. YOU DID THIS TO US.*"
 ― Corpses in the Nightmare

### Haley Isle*(9th of Venn, 4E 776)*

Yuli wakes, drenched in sweat despite the chill, just past midnight. Outside, Finn and Ironstrong-4 are taking the watch, conversing quietly about the ails of the party. From inside the galley, Yuli hears a soft thumping against the hull of the ship. With sleep having fled, she heads up to the deck and looks over the side.

Bumping against the side of the ship, she sees an unusual piece of driftwood rocked by the waves. What catches her attention is the strange growth that spreads across the surface of the driftwood, appearing like the roots of a plant spreading through dirt. From its centre, a faint amethyst light pulses.

Curious, Yuli hauls the driftwood onto the ship and inspects it further. The growth, oddly, is of a strange material with the colour of bone but the texture and shape of crystal that has somehow spread in tendrils like water. At the centre of the growth is a knot of the same material, buried in which is an arrowhead-shaped piece that is glowing with the amethyst light, and softly vibrating against the wood.

Waking Oondak, and now having drawn the attention of Finn and Ironstrong-4 as well, the four inspect the growth and the driftwood it came upon. Oondak realises that the driftwood is actually not wood, but oddly porous stone of a similar appearance to the stone they saw in the ruins beneath the abandoned chapel. Between the four of them, they break the knot of crystal and retrieve the arrowhead, whereupon Yuli notices an answering vibration from the amplifying crystal she has embedded at the back of her neck.

Throwing caution to the wind, Yuli brings the bone-like crystal arrowhead to the amplifying crystal, at which point the two magnetically attract, and the arrowhead comes alive, forming into a strange wreath that grows across the upper half of Yuli's back.

"*The amplifying crystal flares, blue and gold, and the thorny crystal you just placed there begins to shift. You can feel it moving. Growing. Barbs dig into your skin with faint jabs of pain. You feel warm blood drip down your back, but the thorns aren't done. From the arrowhead, roots begin to grow outward, just like they did across the driftwood you pulled from the water. They spread to your shoulderblades, piercing the skin there and embedding themselves into the flesh. Some grows upward, to the base of your skull and around your neck. Not tight, not even very painful, just strange. You can feel the roots digging just under your skin, moving the crystal that you thought was fixed in place, wrapping around it and breaking off a piece of it, moving and twisting it to fill the hole in the arrowhead from which this all started. You can feel small barbs pulling the skin, holding it together and then finally, freezing in place.*"
 ― The Storyteller

While Oondak, Finn, and Ironstrong-4 mull the possible consequences of what they just saw, the rest of the party eventually wakes when first light comes. Gaeldrim admonishes the group, and especially Yuli, for not waking him and Evendur for the events of the night, asserting their responsibility as appointed leaders of the group.

During the ensuing discussions, Ironstrong-4 enacts a plan to offer himself as a punching back for the stress relief of the group. Taking him up on the offer, Gaeldrim manages to put quite a dent in his armour, but loses control of his rage along the way and has to be subdued by the rest. Angry at himself, Gaeldrim heads to the edge of town to vent some of his frustrations. Here he has a talk with Elaria, who guides him more gently towards a possible solution while clarifying that only he himself would be able to grow into control of his own mind, stating that his ancestral guides were really more just extensions of his own self; memories hidden in his blood.

Meanwhile, aboard the ship, Ironstrong-4 finally reveals to the rest of the group that he too had a spectre watching him, like Evendur. At this point, Yuli attempts to place a ward against scrying on him, which causes the spectre to distort and freeze in place, no longer following with its gaze. On a timer, the group rushes downstairs away from the distorted spectre, and Nicolaos finally tells the group everything that had happened during his time in stasis, including his talks with the Ashmaiden, and all he had seen and figured out since.

Hoping to discover what they could in the time they had, Oondak prepares to cast a spell that would let him divine information about the page they had recovered some time ago when they recovered the ship. In the meantime, Ironstrong-4 checks on the spectre, finding it to have grown into a seething, distorted cloud raging against invisible confines that, worryingly, had moved just slightly in pursuit of him.

Rushing back downstairs in a mild panic, Ironstrong-4 informs the group of what he had seen. They nonetheless go forward with the spell, and discover a great deal of information about a tome known as the Book of Truth, from which the page they had had been copied. These discoveries open more questions than they answer, but push them ever closer to discovering the tangled web of plots that surrounds them.

Upon returning to the deck, Ironstrong-4 finds that the distorted spectre has grown into a roiling mass of red and black energy, forming a giant sphere some ten feet in diameter. Growing ever more concerned, he explains what he sees to the rest of the group, at which point Evendur also notices that his own spectre had seemingly "woken up", and was now staring with its head raised at the same point in space where this anomaly hovered like an angry cloud, seething with red electricity and black vapour.

Though invisible to everyone except Ironstrong-4, the anamoloy is nonetheless heating the air around it and causing magical items and creatures that approach to begin to flicker and lose power. When trying to cast spells on it, the group only succeeds in making the sphere swell in size, until ultimately it collapses into a singularity that erupts into a tear in reality, from which comes the overpowering smell of rust and a slew of horrifically mutated abyssal creatures.

"*You hear a noise. Screaming. A chorus of a hundred tortured voices all in unison. Old, young, man, woman...screaming and screaming and shouting in pain. And something else emerges from the rift. Something worse. To call it a creature would be generous; it is a distorted, warped amalgamation of flesh. A writhing mass of bones, bodies, limbs, and tentacles with no rhyme, reason, or sanity. It moves like a sea. Skin bubbling, bones cracking and tearing and reforming, flesh melting and rippling, pus leaking from open festering rips and tears in its body. A depraved, unholy eruption of mutating meat, constantly changing, twisting, shifting. And it flows across the deck towards you, screaming from a hundred mouths that open and close and disappear and reform elsewhere.*"
 ― The Storyteller

As the warped spawn spill out onto the deck, threatening to roll over and devour the beleaguered party, a desperate fight ensues during which the party attempts to hold off the emergent creatures until the rift collapses under its own weight. Despite coming within inches of death at the hands of the constantly mutating tide of flesh and bone, the party emerges victorious and succeed at closing the rift.

In the aftermath, gore drenching the ship, the party regroups, noting with satisfaction that the spectre following Ironstrong-4 had seemingly disappeared. Though the fight was difficult and near deadly, they agree to attempt the same the day after with Evendur's own follower, hoping to clear all eyes upon them before setting sail across the ocean.

While the rest of the group descends to the lower decks to rest, Ironstrong-4 heads back to the aft of the ship, where all that remains of the rift is a small, marble-sized bead of red and black, that disappears without trace when he reaches out to touch it. It is only then that he looks out across the water of the bay and sees, spread out in an even arc, five red and black veiled spectres hovering just above the water, with their heads raised towards him.

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