Episode 59

## Math is Magic... Items.

* Vahlka and Isil keep watch for four hours a piece as they do that elf-y thing they do. With Vahl trading places and riding Nechtanebos to drive. Isil tells Vahlka she'll be spending the day in meditation.
* People finish resting about mid-afternoon. We cast our daily buffs and prepare for the day as usual.
* We encounter Brawnvar the Learned carrying a sleeping Vera on his back. He pulls up alongside us and talks to us. We have formal introductions. Brawnvar tells the party that Vera is pregnant.
* Brawnvar tells us he plans on returning to his lair and then to Oasis. His lair is in the canyons to the west of where we were at the time (north of Rivercross in the Vastlands.)
* He tells us that Dazzlegleam came to him and told him that he'd found a lead to a library that Brawnvar had been searching for. He lured him out with the promise of a key to the library then knocked him out and let the gnolls lock him away. He claimed that Dazzlegleam had always been friendly with him before and he did not know why the other blue dragon had suddenly turned on him. He told us that Dazzlegleam's lair is somewhere within the Hills of Claws and Teeth.
* Godfrey asks Brawnvar about this hidden Library of Ioun he's been searching for. He says no one has ever found it. Supposedly, there is a beacon that will point in the direction to the library. Brawnvar is not certain if that is the truth or merely a legend.
* Brawnvar notices Olivia has a gnoll drum and trades her for a viola he's... had?? just melded?? into his dragon form????
* He tells us that most of the existing dragons live within the Vastlands. Mostly brass with a few blue and some whites living on the northern fringe.
* Olivia asks Brawnvar if he thinks it'd safe for Vahlka in oasis. He says yes so long as she doesn't pick any fights with the guard.

```
Olivia: "Vahlka is very well behaved."

```

```
Brawnvar: "She seems a bit rude, no offense."

```

```
Lucius: "You'd be right."

```

```
Vahlka: "I don't like you."

```

```
Olivia: "No offense taken by anyone. Let's move on!"

```

* Brawnvar tells us the cult of the dragon is looking for the Draakhorn, but that he doesn't know where or why.
* Olivia asks Brawnvar about the gnolls thinking there is a dragon that is an avatar of Yeenoghu, he tells us he believes that refers to Dazzlegleam. We deduce that somehow Dazzlegleam became involved with us after Crow kicked our asses.
* Oliva asks if he knows anything about how the Ring of Storms was formed, he says he doesn't know before and tells us the usual legend. That during the Scale War it was formed when Tiamat messed everything up.
* Olivia asks him about the Northmarch and the Wilders. He tells us most the Wilders were not servants of Tiamat throughout the scale war and that the only ones who remained were those who served Tiamat.
* Vahlka asks him about someone named Galatea Shadowbane. He tells her that she was a former grandwarden. The sand elves took her corpse and hung it from the walls of Aket'o and the drow have not left the city alone since.
* Brawnvar tells us the drow are afraid to cross the Nilean River because the Raven Queen cursed the river with the waters of the Styx river and they all died last they tried. Vahlka later points out to the party that legend is most likely bullshit, and that the real reason is likely just because vampires can't cross running water.
* Olivia asks him if he knows anything about Crow or Anamelech, he says he doesn't know much about them, just that they are bad news.
* Olivia asks Brawnvar if he knows anything about the Claws of Bastus. He tells us they are mercenary company and that they are led by The Black Cat, a title that changes hands.
* Brawnvar thanks us one last time for saving him and Vera and leaves. He says if we ever need to get in contact with him to look for a skull on top of a hill, west of here.
* We move on, a Barkley spots a flag with a large hand painted on it pointing down at a tunnel in the rocks. The party, some of us begrudgingly, agree to investigate. We enter the tunnel and find a large pit, seemingly filled with acid at the bottom, with two moving pillars and a chest on the other side of the pit. After a bit of testing and debate, we deduce that halfway across the pit is a line of magic cancelling runes. Barkley and Godfrey dimension door across to the other platform and find a puzzle built into the lock on the chest.
* After a lot of debate, confusion and and deduction Vahlka solves the math puzzle (nerd.) and we open the chest, revealling a letter and several magic items Lucius and Olly put their heads together and identify them as :a pair of Gauntlets of Ogre Power (Vahlka), A Wand of Wonder (Godfrey), a scroll of Vitriolic Sphere (Lucius), and a pair of Boots of Elvenkind (Barkley).
* We find an odd circle of stones with green healthy grass and a small statue of a cat. Godfrey investigates it despite our caution and finds that it is a small window into the Feywild. Presumably a Fey Crossing. Vahlka laments that it will not get her out of the Vastlands faster.
* We leave the fey crossing behind, journeying onward toward Rivercross. A few hours of travel later Isil finishes her day of mediation and rouses. We more or less recap what happened to her. Isil talks about her friend Risha and tells us a bit about Rivercross.
* Isil tells Godfrey he talks like a Grindwaller. When asked where she met other Grindwallers she says she sold scrap metal to a group of tieflings (Snow & likely Grim) accompanied by a human man with a mohawk who introduced himself as Crowley (assumed to be Crow), a half-elf girl (Tristram), and an old woman (Noir). Vahlka hits on Isil, Isil says hey u wanna go eat ants and Vahl is like... definitely. Godfrey decides he must tag along awkwardly and be a third wheel but he does eat ants.

Our First Actual Arson  <- PREVIOUS EPISODE | NEXT EPISODE -> Attack at Rivercross