Skyward

**"Skyward" (1x15)** is the first session of the third chapter of A War On All Sides. The team arrives at Skyreach, and new adventures await them in the Cloud City.

## **Synopsis**

The party arrives in the Sanctum of Sages in Skyreach via a teleportation circle. Crawmi, upon arriving, failed to contain himself and vomited on the floor. After he recovered, the group followed Tyrael through a wooded courtyard within the sanctum, through winding halls lined with bookshelves and magical lights.

The party eventually arrived in a large wooden room, furnished with a beautiful deep red rug. On the far end, a large window overlooked the city, though at the time it was cloudy and difficult to see out into the evening. Tyrael prepared a meal for the guests, which was served by a strange woman named Zori, a servant to the Archmage of Diplomacy, Martins de Rowe. Meanwhile, Crawmi made himself right at home next to Fel'dagon Myrron, the Archmage of the Bulwark in The Arcane Conservatory. After dinner, the group got to discussing the events that had been occurring across the continent as of late...

Tyrael began by thanking Ronwe for his continued communications. While the party was dealing with portal activity that seemed to stem from cultists (both in Menagerie and Freynor Keep), Tyrael and the Conservatory had been dealing with a large "portal" that had appeared in the Wayward Isles, where the guild has a magical academy. Up to this point, they had determined that this area was the result of a Manifest Zone between Molodar and The Material Plane. However, due to the party's recent success in Kaspalia, Tyrael now believes that these larger invasion zones are the result of a manifest zone, with a large Corrupted Lightshard of some sort acting as the catalyst. Because Kaspalia was cleared of the activity after the shard was destroyed, Tyrael now believed that something similar is keeping the portal in the Wayward Isles open. Though the area is currently contained by the guild, Ashok expressed concern that they have been acting too cautiously, and demanded they reach out to other continents or governments to see if similar activities had happened there. Martins de Rowe vowed to accomplish this in the coming days. When asked by Ashok when this all started, Tyrael answered by saying it had been three or so months since an event called The Shattering tore apart the land around the city of Alaran and sapped the area of life and magic. Since then, the portals have began. They have yet to discover the cause of this event.

Ashok went on to say how his home world, Bysser, was obliterated in the matter of three years by invasions that started similarly to those here on Vaseres. Smaller invasions that quickly grew and grew until it was too much to overcome. He spoke on how they discovered the involvement of lightshards too late, which gave the group hope that they could still by themselves some time on Vaseres. One concern is that despite these larger portal events in Kaspalia and the Wayward Isles, it seems the smaller events are the result of cult activity, noting the Mark of Molod that was found on some of those involved, namely Gideon Griggs, the farmer from Menagerie. Tyrael believed that Nellek Vazerio may be involved based on information Nowun picked up, but the group should investigate before they point fingers. Tyrael mentioned the group should followup with Antoinette Dezier, the Archmage of Society, in the coming days to possibly get access to The Eltivo Gala. She could be reached at the Sanctum or possibly Aerie Park.

Fel'dagon Myrron then spoke up about how the group should participate in a cover up of the events that transpired in Kaspalia, noting they could use the conflict with Ratin as cover. This was information passed down from The Kingdom's Hand itself. This angered Ashok, as he felt the people would eventually find out the truth and cause distrust among the populace. Martins de Rowe refuted by saying that people are more apt to believe tales of war than tales of invasions from a hellish plane. Fel'dagon then offered to sponsor the group if they continued to help, expressing that The Arcane Conservatory would cover room, supplies, and travel when applicable.

As their talks finished, Crawmi gave some gold to Zori, which seemed to send her into a panic, angering Martins de Rowe in the process. Ashok again expressed the urgency of contacting other governments so they could piece together an accurate timeline of when this started. Once that was done, Tyrael led the group up to the top of the Sanctum of Sages, where a skycoach flew them to the Clifftop District, an adventurer's haven. The group (minus Ronwe who stayed behind at the Sanctum) stayed at The Drunken Dragon, where Crawmi and Ashok partook in drink, with Crawmi convincing Ashok to arm wrestle the biggest guy in the room. Using his fierce will, technique, and surprising strength, Ashok crushed his orcish opponent to the surprise of the small gathered crowd. Crawmi mistakenly called Ashok Freynor in celebration, leading to some difficult conversations. Meanwhile, Ivantar headed back down from his room to have some conversations himself. Nowun did not take part in the drunken revelry, instead deciding to stay in his room because he "hates this city." Though on his way to the room, he did discover a notice board by the door with some jobs. He also overheard a man speaking about a large prize at The Colosseum. As the evening winded down, Ashok left into the night...

That night, Crawmi had an interesting dream where he offered his collection of corrupted shards as a gift, which his patron Fu'ulphul graciously accepted. The next morning, as he checked his pack they were gone... Ashok meanwhile arrived back to promptly head to bed as the rest of the group enjoyed breakfast. Before long, Nowun set off on a personal errand, while Cramwi and Ivantar went clothes shopping in the Redstone District at a place strangely called Quill's. Once the group was back together at The Drunken Dragon, they set off to The Colosseum to see what sort of challenge lay to await them. Nowun disguised himself as a woman in the process, and dubbed themselves "Too Hot to Trot". Would their name rise to fame? Or fall to nothing? Time would tell...

## **Character 1 on 1**

### **Ronwe**

Stored in Character Drive. Ronwe stayed back to speak to Fel'dagon and Tyrael at The Sanctum of Sages, showing back up in The Drunken Dragon the next day.

### **Nowun**

Stored in Character Drive. Nowun left in the morning to take care of some personal errands, arriving back several hours later at The Drunken Dragon.

## **Featured Characters**

### **Player Characters**

* Ivantar
* Ronwe
* Ashok
* Crawmi
* Nowun

### **New**

* Fel'dagon Myrron
* Martins de Rowe
* Zori

### **Mentioned**

* Molod the Devourer
* Nellek Vazerio

## **Inventory**

* Nowun Knuthing: -1 Corrupted Lightshard (to Tyrael Mynteres)

## **Quotations**

* "I effing hate this city." - Nowun Knuthing