Campaign 2: Chapter 1

## Murder on the Pony Express

The campaign begins with player characters Taran Elmroot, Issok Verissy, Emil Bastralle, Nuruva, and Rasuil Ramondo sharing a train car making its way to a summit in the northern part of the continent. Accompanying them on the train is a human man by the name of Quillum, another human woman by the name of Nali, and an elven woman by the name of Vasha. All of a sudden the trail comes screeching to a halt, disrupting the idling passengers aboard. Rasuil and Issok go upfront to investigate while Taran, Emil, Nuruva, and Quilum go outside to get some air. The four introduce each other with Taran using the Alias of Marina Way, daughter to Petice Way and heiress to the Ruby Record Fortune to conceal her true identity. Quillum asks how her father is doing to which Taran replies that he is doing well and even working on a new song. Emil brings up that he read somewhere that Petice Way had recently passed away of natural causes, casting this claim in doubt.

Meanwhile, Rasuil and Issok arrive at the front of the train, only to find that the conductor had been impaled on the brake lever in what appeared to be a tragic accident. Upon closer inspection however, there appeared to be some sign of a struggle. While this was happening, Vasha approached Issok with a worried look on her face and pleaded that she help her hide, to which Issok agreed and cast a spell on her to assist. All the while, the passengers outside decide to go retrieve their luggage. Nuruva scales the top of the train cars for reasons and stumbles upon some foot prints in the snow leading off the side of the cliff into a little nook in the side. He tells Emil about them and convinces him to go investigate. Emil discovers Vasha hunched over hiding under the cliff and goes to approach her. This startles Vasha and she goes to attack him but stops when she realizes that "He isn't one of them". Emil assures her that they mean her no harm and that she can join them for the hike up the summit. She joins them towards the storage cars when suddenly the group begins to hear an alluring swan song.

Issok had made her way inside one of the storage cars and encountered Taran rummaging for her belongings when she became entranced from the singing hitting her ears and began walking towards the other car. Nuruva and Quillum also fell victim to this singing and began strolling towards the cliff side in a hypnotic state. Rasuil was unaffected but made his way towards the back of the train only to be confronted by a burly man wearing a train staff uniform that was a couple sizes too small for him who blocked is way. The two entered a brawl while Emil encountered the source of the singing at the top of the train. It was a harpy that appeared to be in the process of participating in a heist of the cargo cars. He took a shot at the harpy with his shotgun focus before being pushed aside by Taran who had shed her disguise and muttered "fucking infernal" before casting a fire bolt at the harpy. The two fired a few more shots in tandem until Taran cast a witch bolt, exploding the harpy with an electrical "BANG". Rasuil had just finished dealing with the combatant in the train when everyone heard a scream from the front of the train that came from Vasha. The group made their way towards the noise while Nuruva and Rasuil stayed behind to interrogate the assailant. Taran discovered a maintenance hatch and sent out a flare with prestidigitation to alert the other members of the group. Emil begins down the hatch to try to close the distance between the group and the kidnapper

Everyone joins Emil in the hatch. Nuruva drops one of the goons down it to Tara, who “promises to catch him,” then steps out of the way. He splits his skull. Big yikes. Moving on, the gang fights some more goons. After various hijinks, they’re all left unconscious. Taran ends up apologizing to Emil for her preconceived notions of him.

As they explore the rooms inside this underground chamber, they suddenly hear someone start humming “Mr. Sandman.” Suddenly, the door inside the room opens, revealing a man in red robes. He monologues for a while, then reveals that he recognizes Taran. Apparently, he graduated from her school and knows she stole something from it.

Suddenly, he disappears, revealing an amalgamation of undead, made out of the bodies of the goons from earlier. At some point in the fight the giant mass splits into individual zombies, and Emil is downed. Nuruva follows soon after. The rest of the gang manages to pull themselves together and defeat the monster. They revive their fallen comrades, and take a short rest in the room, getting to know each other and sharing stories.

Taran was a student at Esken Fellmore. Two days prior, she stole her staff from there, because she was falling into a slump and needed something new. She doesn't know exactly what it does, but apparently the staff doesn't like Nuruva, and burns him upon contact. Suddenly, she gets a vision from the staff: a man in a suit, transformed into a terrifying, incomprehensible form. Nuruva stands in front of him, pleading/begging. She hears the words, "All despair to those who worked with him."

Nuruva explains that this can't be true because he doesn't remember it. He has a great memory of the 7 years he's been alive. Pressing the issue reveals that he's an amnesiac who woke up in a river. He explains that he's a fighter from Ferrovale, who left his arena to go do something more fun up north. Issok and Rasuil estimate that he’s between 50 and 100 years old.

Rasuil then asks Emil about his eye color, which he claims is pink. It's clear that he's looking for someone, and he asks if Emil recognizes the name Lavinia Andronicus. Emil says he does not.

Emil reveals that he got recently laid off of his job as a courier, and is heading towards a suspicious but lucrative job opportunity. He needs the money to pay off his student loans.

Issok is 150 years old, meaning that she has lived through the Second Lightfall. It was this event that turned her towards religion. Now, she just wants to spread the word of her god.

Emil and Taran started arguing over the legitimacy of Emil’s focus, his gun. Taran questions Emil how his gun works, asking which part of the gun actually performs as Emil’s magical focus. Taran worries that Emil’s gun will stop working because of this confusion--and also, she doesn’t view Emil’s focus as legitimate It escalates, until Emil reveals that his gun was originally broken and works mostly by pointing.

Meanwhile, Rasuil began his epic quest of searching the rooms and finds, to his joy, a broom closet. Then Emil examines the cafeteria to find nothing out of the ordinary except some loose parchment, written in Thieves’ Cant. It reads:

* Dual contract on next few lines. Protect Cargo Boxes 15a-g, rear car. Mid-level priority, station hidden talent + bound. Subject Watch. Female elf, blonde, slim build, name unknown. HIGH priority, T offers triple pay. Catch-and-return, hold at C. Station additional rider. -Sandman
* --------- says ----- hired us to catch some bitch, gives basically no info, helpful as always.
* Tiff, for the last time use the fucking code.
* tIfFAnY, uSe tHE sUUuper sEcREt cOdE.

Prompted by this discovery, Rasuil and Emil rush back through the snow to the cargo cars. They discover that the first two cargo boxes, 15a and 15b, have been emptied of their contents. Their lids are torn off and glass that contained a green liquid has been shattered. The rest of the cargo boxes (15c-g), still have their contents--vials of the drug *green* and *diamond*. Shocked by their discovery, they come back and inform the group. Nuruva, upon hearing of the presence of drugs, runs to get his luggage and stuffs two vials of green in his pockets. He claims to the group that his bag is full of “food”, despite the plastic crinkly noises coming from inside.

The group decides to sleep. Nuruva, as an elf, needs no sleep and decides to get high inside the broom closet Rasuil had discovered before. He begins to talk to the broom as if it’s a sentient being. Issok takes to writing pamphlets and praying inside the cafeteria.

Issok notices a small glow from the teleportation circle. Instead of informing the group, Issok moves closer as the glow strengthens. Four people appear. One, the apparent leader, is a human woman with short brown hair and a long greatsword, wearing the sign of the Zhentarim. Another is a half-elf who has pasty skin, wears robes with an unidentified insignia, and wields a gnarled staff. The last two are each in leather armor, with one handed swords and shields. One has red hair, and another has brown. Altogether, they are two humans and two elves.

The visitors are not happy with Issok’s presence. They question who she is, what her purpose is, and do not like it when she gives them her name and her reason as seeking shelter. They begin to circle her and the rest of the party wakes up, hearing the questioning.

Nuruva walks in, holding a broom named “Mr. Broom”. Taran and Emil are confused, and Taran hits Nuruva on the back of her neck with her staff. They walk in on the Issok and the strangers in the cafeteria and confront them. Emil casts *Cause Fear*, intimidating the strangers. The strangers reveal that they work for Alexander De Venecia and that they are there to take the drugs. Then, they leave with the drugs.

## First Stop: Coruscan

The next morning, the group begins hiking up the snowy mountain. As they make their way towards a narrow bridge, Nuruva steps in a puddle. He spends a nice time splashing around, when suddenly Quillum stops moving, choking in water. Nuruva is also engulfed by one of these strange, watery serpents. Quillum is knocked unconscious during the following fight. Issok stabilizes Quillum. Eventually, Taran realizes that these creatures are deliberate assassins that go after a specific target, known as Slithering Trackers. These ones must have been going after Quillum.

Once the monsters are defeated, Quillum is revived. The gang convinces him to confess: he’s not heading North for a hunting trip with his dad, but a “trouble shooter” hired by the famous General Leah Knockwraith. Accepting this answer, the gang reaches the mountain town of Coruscan, only to see smoke rising...

Travelling down the remaining walkway into Coruscan, a town
nestled in a valley between two peaks of Giant’s Spine, they come into a train
station. A very concerned attendant calls the guard on their behalf after the
party begins telling them what happened. A pair of tired-looking guards, Dale
and Mary, attend to them. Mary vows to speak with the captain about what
happened, and Dale briefly welcomes them to town and tells them about the fire

The party heads down to the Briggam house, which is engulfed
in a blaze. Dale tells them that the house is essentially beyond the point of
no return, and at this point they’re hoping to simply contain and control the
blaze in order to keep it from spreading. The townsfolk have formed a rather
simple bucket brigade, and a single mage conjuring wind aids them. The party
joins in to help in various ways:

Rasuil and Issok head over to the injured elderly couple who
own the house; Lucas Briggam is a bit worse off than his wife Justa, but with
the aid of Rasuil and Issok they recover quickly. They also have a son, Isaac,
who was out hunting at the time of the fire and is now aiding in the bucket
brigade.

As Rasuil treats him, Lucas rants onwards about the fire
being caused by a “living blaze,” claiming it came from the mountainside and
consumed their town. His wife comforts and calms him, as the guards mutter to
Rasuil about Lucas being a bit senile.

Taran casts Prestidigitation to put out the smaller fires
near the outer perimeter. Upon seeing her at work, the other mage appears
miffed, and begins subtly strengthening the wind she’s using in order to work
faster than Taran. A bit of an impromptu competition occurs between the two of
them, at which Taran wins decidedly, contributing significantly more to the
effort.

Emil decides to simply join the bucket brigade and begins
helping the townsfolk. He notices a few sidelong glances at him; this town
clearly doesn’t receive that many visitors who are quite as unusual as an
albino tiefling, but they are happy to have an extra set of helping hands.
Nuruva doesn’t help at all, and merely pulls yet another snack out of his
mysterious bag.

Grateful for their assistance, Dale vows to ensure that they
have a room for the night, free of charge. He leads them down to the Leiabell
inn, and speaks to the innkeeper about giving them each a room for the night. The
party asks him a few questions: first, Taran asks about the mage at the fire. Taran
learns that she was Lady Lysanna, born and raised here, educated at Castle
Grivel. They were fortunate that she was in town at a time such as this. Dale
also mutters about rumors that she now works with the Circle. A couple of the
others ask about a place to get a drink, and they are pointed towards the
nearby Dusty Chestnut tavern. Issok and Rasuil head to their rooms to sleep,
while the rest walk over to the tavern.

The remaining trio, as well as Quillam, arrive at the animal
just before the rush, and Emil first asks about a dessert menu. The bartender
seems like she doesn’t receive this question often, and quickly scribbles a few
options on a piece of parchment. While Emil considers the options, Nuruva
orders shots, one for each of them. Eventually, each of them also orders the
Chestnut Special, a slice of pie. They begin talking.

After being pressed by Taran, Emil seems fairly
disinterested in a friendship and notes that they’ll likely split up after this.
Quillam notes that he’s meeting with General Knockwraith on the North-Western
part of the continent, roughly in the same direction that Emil is heading. Nuruva
is heading the same direction, his final goal being Frost’s Respite. They conclude
that it makes sense to travel that way together.

Taran brings up Nuruva’s suspicious sack, and Emil agrees
that it’s quite questionable. Nuruva shies away from telling them anything, and
the group presses onwards, suspecting the worst. However, Nuruva finally caves
in, and shows them the contents: an unreasonable amount of Fantasy Lunchables,
which Nuruva appears to eat exclusively. The group finds this odd but doesn’t
push the issue any further.

As they talk, a woman in heavy armor sits down in their
midst, staring towards Emil. Emil recognizes her as the leader of the group
that had teleported into the maintenance tunnel beneath the train line. The
rest of the group is quickly clued in. She makes an offer: a question from them
in exchange from a question from her. Emil asks instead for a small order of
food from the bar, and Nuruva agrees. The mercenary is confused but agrees. Her
group was lied to about the job: they were led to believe that an accident had
occurred on the train line, everyone had died as a result, and her group was
simply to bring back some questionable cargo. She asks for more detail about
what occurred during the accident and kidnapping. Emil begins giving details,
and by the end has apparently explained to her satisfaction. She gives them 4
gold, more than enough to order the desserts they requested, and begins
leaving. Before doing so however, she offers them Alexander’s location, in exchange
for a simple favor owed to her. Emil declines the offer, and she leaves.

As the group uses the gold given to order a few more
trifles, Taran spots Lady Lysanna drinking alone across the room. She smiles,
and approaches the table. Lysanna eyes Taran suspiciously, and asks what she
wants. Taran takes a seat at the table, and begins with small talk about the
fire.

After a few moments, she asks if Lysanna knows anything
about Moonsong. Lysanna appears taken aback, and says she knows nothing about
it. She is clearly lying. Taran presses her, and she asks why Taran would be
interested. Taran smiles, and places Moonsong on the table. Lysanna becomes
visibly nervous.

Lysanna begins with questioning Tarans intelligence, asking why on
earth Taran would bring such an artifact to someone she suspected was part of
the organization searching for it. She also identifies Taran by name, as word
of the crime had worked its way through the circle by then. Lysanna makes an
offer to Taran: quietly hand over the staff, and Taran and her friends can walk
free, unbothered. Taran goes quiet for a while, seemingly contemplative. After
she’s finished, she stands. The staff morphs into a thin silver chain necklace,
keeping the same crescent pattern in the front, and Taran puts it on. Despite
threats by Lysanna of the Circle hunting her down, Taran leaves. The rest of
the group soon follows, and all of them head back to their rooms for the night.

The gang awakens the next morning to howling winds and the shattering of the glass in their windows. The innkeeper rushes into each of their rooms in turn, showing them a parchment telling them to hurry to the basement. Nuruva, however, decides to stick his head out the window. After barely avoiding being hit by a flying branch, he looks out into the storm. Through the harsh winds, he makes out a sort of form made of wind, with two eyes glaring out into the storm. At the same time, he hears a gunshot go off. Quillum has apparently also seen the form, and is firing at it. Seeing the bullet hurt the entity, Nuruva rushes out to help fight it.

One by one, the other members of the group become aware of the creature rampaging through the storm, and come outside to fight it. During the ensuing battle, Quillum displays a much improved ability to fight, no longer needing to hide his true profession from the party. Dale is slammed aside by the Air Elemental and knocked unconscious, saved only when Issok emerges and stabilizes and heals him. The group asks Dale to look for Lysanna for aid, and he reports that she left the night before, angry.

The gang manages to defeat the elemental, and notices that it left behind a trail of devastation leading up the mountain. They quickly head out to track the creature. In the meantime, Lysanna teleports back into town, accompanied by a number of powerful mages of the Circle, Eskan Fellmore, and several other schools. Amongst them is Kriv Kimbatuul.

The party made their way up the mountain to investigate the source of the elemental problem, following a path of knocked over trees and uprooted forestry. Their search led them to a man made icy cave about a mile and a half away from town. The gang ventures inside and is walking along the narrow path when suddenly the icy floor breaks underneath them. Emil, Issok, and Rasuil jump out of the way but Nuruva and Taran plummet into some icy stalagmites. They survive but Nuruva’s bag of fantasy lunchables does not, spilling out onto the floor. Nuruva is only able to salvage a couple of them while Emil pulls them both back up.

Further exploration through this cave led the adventurers to a set of large stone doors that were sealed with a riddle that Rasuil solved almost immediately. The door opened into a dark room with an ice slab in the middle with a handprint on it with the inscription “When you are prepared, prove your strength” and a barred room connected to the far wall. Emil saw some movement from behind the bars but it was too dark to get a better look. The group began to contemplate turning back to get some help from the town guard when Taran placed her hand on the ice slab only for the doors to lock behind them and the slab to glow. Suddenly, an elemental that was a mixture of earth, fire, air, and water formed and attacked the party. After some combat the group managed to defeat the elemental. During the battle, a stray blast from Emil created a gap in the bars.

When the party went closer to inspect, a voice echoed through the cave yelling at them not to get any closer. Closer investigation reveals the mysterious stranger to be Isaac Briggam, the son of the couple whose house had burned down. Isaac threatens to blow everyone in the cave up with a ritual circle but Taran charms him so that he perceives the party as friends so that she can get a closer look. The far side of this room is covered in a mural, religious in nature.  There's more writing beneath the mural, enough that it would take a fair bit of time to read. There's etchings of figures kneeling to a chained figure, with 4 chains extending to pillars. The chained figure is an obese humanoid with a maw of shark's teeth, far larger than any actual humanoid. The chains are hooked into its flesh. A second worshipped figure, the big boi combo elemental, named Kalimos. The humanoid had a name, but its been scratched out. Isaac said that he sent the elemental after the town because they deserved it after they “sent Kellam out to freeze to death”.

Satisfied, the party leaves and heads back to town to report what they found. They have almost made it back when they spot that the mages of the Circle wandering the town. Everyone assumes they are here regarding the presence of the the elementals and heads toward them, but Taran knows the real reason they are there and dons a disguise of a middle aged Elven man. The group wanders back and Emil goes to approach the group of mages to report their finding while Rasuil goes to find the Briggams and ask about Isaac.

While Emil is explaining to the mages about what they found in the cave, Kriv cuts him off and tells him that they are not here for that, that they are looking for Taran Elmroot. Emil pauses for a second before saying that he doesn't know where she went before walking away and grabbing the disguised Taran and bringing her into a back alleyway. Emil tells Taran that that was the last and only time he will ever cover for her and that she is no longer welcome to travel with him as long as she holds onto moonsong. Taran tries to negotiate with Emil but Emil doesn’t want to hear it. Before Emil is about to walk away, Taran tells him that moonsong has requested to speak with him. Emil begrudgingly accepts and takes the necklace from Taran where upon contact with his skin, it casts feeblemind on him, rendering him unable to speak and function properly.

Angered and betrayed, Taran takes off her disguise and walks towards Kriv to explain her situation. She tells Kriv how she took moonsong in an attempt to change the world for the better and study its properties, saying that it would be better than being stored in a room untouched. She explains that she has been able to communicate with it and that it speaks back to her, which both intrigues and worries Kriv, given his history with conduits. Kriv makes a deal with Taran, telling her that he will consider not pressing charges on the item if she works with The Circle to study it. He casts a ward on Taran that will activate chains of the void wastes on her if she fails to check in for weekly updates on moonsong and also meet at a designated location by the end of the week. Taran can't thank Kriv enough as she hurries away before the other members of the Circle show up and back to the alleyway where Emil is. She puts the pendant around his neck and Emil regains his intellect but also erasing his memories of the event. Somehow though, Emil still knows what happened and grabs moonsong and throws it on the ground. Taran explains what happened and Emil just stays silent before saying “the train leaves in an hour” and walking away.

Meanwhile, Rasuil talks to Isaac’s mother, Justa and asks about Isaac and Kellam. She explains that Isaac and Kellam were best friends, but Kellam began to start to pick up some sinister habits. He began to find and kill small animals for fun and displayed sadistic tendencies. Later, some local girls from the town disappears for their tortured and mutilated corpses to turn up with Kallem admitting he did it and that he only regrets getting caught. Isaac was blinded by his faith in his friend and was in denial that he could commit such atrocities. The town sentenced Isaac on a deadly trial to the top of the summit on foot and with minimal clothing as punishment, only for him to die on the way up there. Rasuil told Justa that he would go retrieve her son from the cave but Justa just said that the town guard would take care of it. Satisfied, Rasuil leaves and heads back to the town center.

Taran heads to the train station where Emil joins her shortly after. He tells her that he respects that she risked herself to undo the spell that moonsong placed on him as she took responsibility for her own mistakes for once,but that it wouldn't kill her to be more honest. Suddenly, the broken greatsword that is on Emils side begins glowing with an ethereal light and mist before absorbing itself into his body and then transforming into a wood handled blade with a floral pattern back in his hand. Taran witnesses this and only says “curious”.

## Second Stop: Northerend

Before heading on the train, Lyssana comes by to give Taran a communications artifact. She looks extremely pissed as she instructs her in how to operate the device, so that she can complete her daily check-ins. Before leaving, Lyssana mentions that she hopes Taran screws up, so that she can take her in.

After that, the gang get on the train towards the Frozen Coast, to Northerend, the last town before Frost's Respite Glacier. Intended primarily for trading with the northern tribes, this town has very few businesses and very cold temperatures. Nuruva borrows one of Issok's cloaks, wearing it under his normal jacket to prevent "cramping his style."

Everyone disembarks from the train and heads to to Honest Orphelia's House of Trade (and Inn). The half-elvish woman running the place, presumably Orphelia herself, asks them why they've come. Emil explains he's here to complete a high-paying job, which surprises her. He asks if she knows where they should be going, and after purchasing something, she shares rumors of a glittering blue tower miles to the west, with curious guests coming in and out.

The shop itself is full of random odds and ends. Some minor purchases are made, and a few shenanigans ensue before they finally purchase rooms for the night. That evening, people hear Orphelia whispering weirdly, but no one investigates. The next morning, they head out west along the coast. Eventually, Issok notices something enormous moving on the edge of the glacier.  It's taller than it is wide, and moves steadily, as if with slow, lurching footsteps. Some of the ice cracks, and a few party members fall into the cold water. Weird, spidery limbs emerge from the cracks, and the group begins fighting the ice-spider construct. At one point, Taran switches to her Aasimar form, with wings made of shattered stained glass.

After the fight, the group sits down at a fire to take a short rest. Prompted by Taran's transformation, they start talking about their families, and where they're from. Emil explains that he was adopted by dwarves, and has never met his birth parents. Taran reveals that she has celestial blood in her lineage, which had somehow not come up until now. Nuruva, when asked about family, claims he doesn't know, but that he lived with the doctor that pulled him out of the river 7 years ago.

Eventually, they reach the tower, where a woman in blue and gold robes floats down towards them. Her name is Wilfina Wizbang, and her tower is Kherezan, Medieve's tower. Medieve was her master, and left the tower to her when he passed. Her eyes are a soft violet, which Rasuil takes notes of. Wizbang agrees to pay everyone to join Emil in completing two jobs. She's willing to pay the rest of us for joining Emil in completing her 2 jobs. The first job is a courier mission, to retrieve and absolutely not look at the contents of a certain scroll. Payment for this job is 10,000 Gold Pieces, which either be paid in full once the two tasks are finished, or in half payments after each task.

Wilfina also reveals that Frost's Respite has ancient magic trapped within it, from the before the First Lightfall. This sometimes causes the creation of Frost Behemoths and other constructs, which get larger as they get closer to the glacier. She also mentions that her brother was involved with Lavinia's blinding, and that Wilfina sees him time and again. Wilfina apologized genuinely, and offered repayment. Rasuil proposed that she help him find her brother instead of offering monetary payment for helping her with her task, a proposal which she at least seems to be considering.

Emil takes a bubble bath while Taran speaks with Moonsong. She learns that the consciousness in the staff did not create the staff, but took it from some Material Plane crafter who was "Hoping to find [their] way into solution by chance" and "acted in the most mistaken emotion of them all...Desperation". The staff demands that Taran will only be granted more information if she uses the staff's power. Taran agrees and promises to use it soon.

Wilfina and Rasuil go to speak in private.  Wilfina does not like her brother, but she cannot stand by while he's blinded.  She is willing to allow him to be subjected to just punishment under the law, but not willing to allow Rasuil to blind him.  Rasuil insists that Wilfina's brother must be punished appropriately.  Wilfina refuses to share any information regarding her brother to Rasuil, and refuses Rasuil's proposal.

In the morning, the group has breakfast before Wilfina instructs them all to head down to her cellar where she has prepared a teleportation circle to transport everyone to the rendezvous point. The gang steps in and finds themselves on top of the canyon where the caravan meant to pass through. After some discussion, the group heads down the side of the canyon to wait for the transport rather than stage a surprise attack. This takes a little bit of time so Taran and Nuruva throw spears at each other to pass the time.

After some waiting, the caravan arrives and Emil steps in front of them to halt their path. The guards tell the group to state their business and the group states that they are interested in acquiring the scroll inside. The guards expressions change and they tell the group that they have no scroll and are transporting live cargo, but after Emil asks them to step into a zone of truth to confirm that, they drop the facade. The guards proceed to offer the party double Wilfina's pay in exchange for no conflict. After some internal discussion, the party refuses and prepares for combat. Now was the time for Taran to finally test out Moonsong's abilities, so she points it at the caravan and says "let me see what you've got". Everyone is instantly enveloped in a bright white light from an explosion except for Taran who comes out unharmed. When the dust clears, the party sees not the remnants of a destroyed caravan in a gorge, but a trashed room in Wilfina's tower as she struggles to put out fires.

The party had never left the Azure Tower, it was all just an illusionary test set up by Wilfina to see if she could trust the party for her real task. Rasuil and Quillam were unconscious on the ground with Nuruva, Emil, and Issok critically injured. Taran immediately throws Moonsong on the ground and kicks it as she had let its magic get out of her control yet again. As Issok works on getting everyone up and moving again, Rasuil attacks Wilfina and demands compensation for the damages, clearly not realizing that it was Taran's fault that any of this happened. He demands that she give the party 3 boons and all the information that he needs to find her brother. Wilfina lies and accepts the deal, only to put herself inside of an anti-life shell the second she is released. Taran begins to berate moonsong and call it a worthless piece of garbage while kicking it, threatening to call the circle to take it away. At this, Moonsong begins to levitate and tells that party that it has been fun observing them but it will be more fun to watch them die and disappears into thin air. Taran calls the circle much to Wilfina's protest and they arrive in an instant. Taran tries to explain herself only to be surrounded by members of the circle and placed in an antimagic bubble. Kriv enters the bubble and taps the ward on Taran's neck, placing her under the effect of chains of the void wastes.

With Taran in chains, the party begins to explain what exactly has happened thanks to the assistance of Issok's zone of truth. The circle leave the room for a bit while the party gathers themselves and figures out how they are going to get home. WIlfina tells them all not to leave an confesses the truth behind what had happened. She was testing the party to see if they were trustworthy enough to take on the real task: retrieving two pieces of a sundial mechanism that is said to be able to give the user prophetic visions. She explains that the passengers are the only chance she has in retrieving this artifact as she is pressed for time and thus offers them another chance at the job. After some mulling it over, the party reluctantly accepts for the promise of pay.

The circle reenters the the room and unbinds Taran, giving her another ward on her neck that will allow them to keep a close eye on her and summon her if they ever need her to help them get back moonsong. While Taran is extending her gratitude, a small gnome boy catches her eye right outside the door. They lock eyes and he signals to her to be quiet. To this Taran gives a subtle nod and continues talking to the circle member. After some more discussion, the circle leaves and Taran excuses herself to go outside and find the gnome she had just seen. She walks outside to find the boy peering into a window and proceeds to ask who he is and how he got there. The gnome introduces himself as Wrenn and says he simply climbed the mountain to get here. Confused, Taran brings Wrenn inside to the party to introduce him. It is revealed further that Wrenn is the son of one of "The Pure", upper echelon members of The Church of One. This pisses off Rasuil and he begins to spout some xenophobic remarks about monotheistic religions. He further explains that he is up here in the Knockwraith empire looking for someone, refusing the elaborate further. He asks if he can join the group to get the sundial and even offers to not take a cut of the pay. The group accepts saying that it couldnt hurt to have another pair of hands helping out around. Before setting out, Quillam tells the group that before they head out to find the first piece, he has a meeting with Ms. Knockwraith herself and that they are welcome to accompany him there so that the group has some time to relax. The party accepts and begin to head to the meeting place after a short rest.

In the tower, Wilfina makes Rasuil’s glowing armor walk to the party and collapse. Rasuil takes ten minutes to don his newly-repaired armor.

The party follows Quillam to the snowy camp of Leah Knockwriath. The outer guards are heavily armored, while the inner guards are less so. Issok claims that the party is all missionaries and holds up flyers, but Quillam clarifies to the camp that he was sent to complete a task. They tell the party to leave their weapons out front. Because it’s armor, Rasuil keeps his. And, because it’s a magical weapon that reappears in Emil’s grip, he keeps his warlock weapon. They also have a wizard look the party over. Taran is taken aside, Emil is told he has a patron.  We're taken past a bunch of weapons, including a siege weapon under construction.

Within the camp, the party is taken to a tent. Three people sit inside--one with heavy, decorated, another with lighter armor, and other with casual, nice clothes. They look at a table with maps and diagrams, but cover it with a tarp. The one in heavy armor identifies herself as Leah Knockwraith. She’s a tall human woman, older, black hair with streaks of gray, but strong. At her side, she holds a claymore, another large sword, and several pouches. The one in casual clothes is Soben, who proceeds to take everyone but Quillam inside so that Knockwraith can talk privately with him. Soren remarks that he has visited Faravel 15 years prior, before Nuruva was there. The party doesn’t hear what is said to Quillam, but they hear that his last name is Reine, and see him come out of the tent wide-eyed. Meanwhile, Taran is put in a Zone of Truth and interrogated about the tracer/chains rune, and whether or not she intends to attack the camp (negative).

After checking Quillam for magic, he tells the party that he needs to kill Rania, head of XRM manufacturing in Alkenstar. According to him, she has been providing technology to Knockbraith’s enemies, hesistates to provide technology to Knockbraith, and is otherwise clogging up the resource flow.

The party then asks Emil about his patron--the party having been under the impression that he was a wizard. He explains that once, when he was traveling in the desert on a delivery, his cart had exploded. In the wreckage of his cargo, he had found a magic sword and defeated two bandits. This magic sword came with a voice in his head named Faust, who claimed to be a paladin of Tyr. The party argues over the semantics of magic. "Petice, this is so sad, play Despacito”.

The party heads back to the Azure Spire. Issok requests some paper to make flyers from the annoyed Wilfina. The next morning, Wilfina clarifies a few details about our mission to retrieve the sundial: it should take a week, including transport. The crashed ship with the sundial is called the Drunken Giant.  It will likely have some treasure other than the sundial base that the party are to find. The other piece is in the tunnels of Frost Respite, which are also home to tribes and Frost Behemoths. Tribes vary in willingness to speak with outsiders. The party’s best bet would lie in a temple in the ice, whose name has been lost.  She suggests that the party can try asking tribes to take us to the largest temple. It should be a day's journey to the crashed ship. Wilfina tells the party about tribes she's been in contact with, including Clan Thunderborn, Those Who Watch, the Chroma Conclave (one member, only), etc.

Wrenn asks if he can use the sundial.  Wilfina says he gets one use, so long as he doesn't get paid. Nuruva asks for alcohol, and is given a bottle of Troll’s Blood, a strong vodka, from Wilfina (with a dock in pay), and chugs it. She also provides the party with three healing potions, two minor and one regular, free of charge.

The party sets off to the Frozen coast, towards the crashed ship, taking notes of small landmarks and signs of travelers. We find an abandoned campsite with 6 rations inside. We hear distant roars and the shifting of ice.

After a few hours, we hear low growls nearby. We are attacked by sabre-toothed tigers. The colors of the tigers are muted, with frost growing on them. Their eyes are a flat, glazed-over blue. They seem to suffer less damage from fire, and their bites feel cold. In the battle, Wrenn is savagely attacked by one of the tigers, who tries to take him away. Luckily, the party attacks the tiger before it can take his body, and Issok saves him. Nuruva, meanwhile, grapples one tiger and attempts to tame it, engaging it with meat from his rations.

With some investigation, the party finds that the tigers are under temporary magic that was not targeting them--they just happened to be around a source.  Emil and Rasuil argue with Nuruva over the semi-tamed tiger, and in the end, the tiger flees (with an attack from Rasuil). Taran placates Nuruva by casting Find Familiar to summon a cat, which Taran names Paran.

The party continues traveling, and almost bump into what seems like a wooden wall, but is actually the crashed ship, with a tattered rope leading up to the deck, almost inviting us. Up top, the party discovers multiple devils that seem to be under a mind control spell as they repeat one phrase and follow that action. Some devils are fought and some are avoided as they aren't commanded for combat. The party arrives at the bottom floor and discovers a bone devil guarding the captain quarters. A fight begins but another devil comes downstairs at the same time. The party manages to convince the Devils to fight each other based on their associated phrases while Nuruva and Taran break into the Captains quarters and find the sundial piece. Taran sees a magical circle on the ground and destroys it, freeing the devils from their control. The devils then proceed to attack the party, dropping them to 0 HP one by one. Emil leads one devil out to the top of the ship while the others set off an explosion, destroying the bone devil. This explosion causes the ship to fall apart just as Wrenn arrives at the top with Rasuil. The ship collapses and all hope seems lost as the devil emerges from the wreckage when Kriv shows up out of nowhere and takes on the devil. The group leaves, dragging the many unconscious members with them.

The group eventually shows back at the azure tower, and gives Wilfina the sundial piece. They tell Wilfina that they have no interest working for her anymore and Wilfina breaks down, explaining that she is trapped in the tower with no way out except for the sundial and that Emil is the only person who can retrieve it for her. She explains that Emil is descended from an Archdevil named Gargauth. She says that only a tiefling of his bloodline can enter his temple and that Emil is the only person on the continent that fits that description. Despite this, the Party decides to cut their losses and leave, instead opting to look for Vasha and help Wrenn find whoever they are looking for. Quillam pulls out the note that he took from the bunker underground and notices that it says Omni Echelon, on it. Emil remembers hearing something about organized crime syndicates back in Ghyssa so they head back to the city that Emil lives in, Oro, to ask around as well as help Emil pay his rent.