The Venassi Raid Part 2

## Episode 4 - The FeyWild West

In a Venassi stronghold near Duskdown, a DMP Strike Team has just defeated one of the base's larger defenders. Looking around bookshelves that are present in the room are now empty. Seeing this the strike team moves quickly toward the library only to find those shelves also are mostly bear. Most of what is left our books about hunting creatures. Captain Wilde looks to very specific locations in the library and curses when he doesn't not find what he's looking for. Seline finds a book on the *Elemental Planes and Their Connection to Arcane Magic*, a book detailing certain elements of the Feywild, a book about the Shadowfell, a book about the Underdark and a copy of the *Personages of the Feywilds*. Leaving the library, they move through the facility until they come to the t-intersection. Ahead of them the carving in the stone wall of a door. The carving on the door is similar to a Venassi symbol that they had seen previously with knights fighting monsters except the sword and stake of the V are vertical instead of crossed at the bottom. Talia crosses the two pieces. They asked the tongueless Venassi if it's trapped and he says non-magical. The team backs up against the sides of the wall. Seline asks James if he knows what's going to happen. Captain Wilde claims he's only saw the traps because he's got a sharp eye. Talia can sense that he's lying. As the door opens, a gout of Dragonfire rolls down all three hallways burning everyone. Slog is a little worse for wear but Bramble and Seline tend to him. Khauri notices a smoking pair of boots where the tongueless Venassi used to be. Noticing a indentation on the wall above where are the sword and stake should cross and with a few notes on Talia’s map, they decide to try Constance Melody's amulet in the indentation. Hugging the wall again they turn the stake and sword to cross a again. Entering the hall beyond, there are troughs along the wall with oil in them that ignite lighting the hallway. Along the walls the carvings of serpents and creatures appear to move in the firelight. The hallway continues to an archway. The room beyond appears to be directly under the common room with the golem. The fire troughs continue into this room along the walls. From the walls, troughs lead into toward the center to provide more light there. In the center of the room is an altar and above it is a crystal. The crystal itself is six feet tall and three and a half feet wide. Mixed in with the scent of burning oil is the odd smell of wildflowers. There are cracks formed in the crystal, scattering chunks of crystal in the surrounding area. In some of the cracks, plant life is starting to grow out. Talia smells the Feywild with the crystal. Seline gets the sense of being caged being held back when she enters the room. James, from the stuff that he's collected on the Venassi, says that the crystal was described as a dam holding back the unnatural. Seline lays her hand on the crystal. What she sees is a smooth stone like surface but what she feels is rough wood like. An image of blossoms in her mind of a large tree that is divided into sections: a quarter of its branches are leafless and dead, a quarter of its branches are covered in blossoms, a quarter with lush blue leaves, and a final quarter with them turning dark purple, before the images disappear. Talia only feels smooth polished crystal. Rhenalle's team returns with a bag that one of the Venassi was trying to escape with. A couple of books, some notes and writing implements fall out of the bag. The book is an autobiography of the founder of the Venassi. The notes a log of behaviors of the crystal. The log goes back pretty far but is incomplete. It shows that in the last few months there's been an increase in the formation of cracks although most are very small but then they start to chain and add up. Talia looks and notices that a large chunk of the dates in the log where are cracks formed are days that Seline and she crossed into the feywild. Talia tells Seline the crystal is holding back the feywild and in night speak that they are helping to crack it. As they're standing there, Seline here's a door open as another crack forms in the crystal. Seline puts her ear to it she hears the chill winds of Winter, a gentle Summer breeze and the chill rains of fall. On the back wall is a large carving. It's a large circle that's intricately detailed vines and creatures surrounding it and there are several jewels placed around seemingly at random. There's a word written in draconic under each and they're all various colors. Some of the gems are glowing and some aren't but a green one is flickering, the Feywilds. One is deep dark red that is completely out, Hell. For gems for the elemental planes are also out. Another one is so dark without the light coming through it you wouldn't know it was violet is labeled Shadowfell. Light is fairly steady with the occasional dim to it. One of the center is glowing bright solid gold, celestial. Somewhat close to it is one that's not glowing but an absence of light that is constant is labeled Abyss. All of these gems appear to be orbiting around it looks like a garden scene with some mountains in the distance. This is a carved representation all the planes in relation to the material. James is eyeballing the hell one. Back over by the crystal, Talia tells James Seline made the first crack 20 years ago which was confirmed by his notes in his collection and by the Broker. In discussing the crystal and the feywild crossing through the material, James points out Karen dealt with Earth forms that look like direwolves in Harnvel. With her head against the crystal Seline smells all the scents of the different seasons. The feel of the crystal changes from the rough bark of a tree to that a crystal wall that stretches to Infinity with chunks and gaps missing and cracks running all throughout on the other side is a tide of magic and nature battering against it. In all this appears that gate as high as the wall intricately carved with scenes of all the seasons, of creatures dancing and playing and hunting. Seline feels all she has to do is push... and she steps away from it. Talia sees that other rituals have been formed here but grabs a fist-sized chunk a crystal. In it she sees dark forest interning at the scenery changes.

## Characters

### Players

* Seline Argent-Grey
* Talia Argent-Grey

### NPCs

* Captain James Wilde
* Slog and Bramble
* Khauri
* Emmett Ironspine (DMP)
* Rhenalle