Session Recaps

## Act 1

##### Session One: Granny's Apple Pie

After waking up from a dream about a woman named Jennrielle and a message from a god, the party rose with a sense of destiny and purpose.

As Malzahar, Runt, Bones, Loudmouth, and Nikyla stepped into the world, they each came face to face with a plain wooden door. Stepping through, they found themselves in Tyndareus' tower. He told them his time here was coming to an end and he had an important job for them - a series of quests to train them into the heroes they needed to be to fulfil their destiny and save the world. He needed a recipe for apple pie.

He gave the group maps to send them to Granny's Bakery. After a short journey, the party arrived at the goblin infested bakery. They easily dispatched the goblins and found both halves of the secret recipe, along with some other loot.

Tyndareus rewarded them as promised, but he danced around their questions. It would be too much for them to know now, he said, but they would learn everything soon enough. He clearly knew more than he was letting on about several things, including some characters' own inner mysteries.

His next quest was to send them to Dellmarrow, for some iskarian beer.

##### Session Two: Dellmarrow

The party spent the night in Tyndareus' tower. In the morning, he was nowhere to be seen.

A long day's journey, which was made longer by Malzahar's need to stop for lunch (and a chapter of one of his books) brought them north to Dellmarrow. As they approached, they were shocked to find they walked into some sort of illusion that turned them all human. It reversed when they turned back, and didn't seem to cause them harm, so they continued along the North Road.

The villagers of Dellmarrow were friendly and preparing for the Harvest festival. They happily explained that the Iskarian Beer was something special made by the Tinkers, a group of nomadic traders who would be arriving the day of the Harvest. Dallon cautioned the group against spending the night outside, and offered up the use of the barn. On the way there, they learned about the mysterious danger of the grain fields (or "iskar" as the cows called it)

In the morning, the gang had a strange encounter with a gaggle of Toads and a pale woman who seemed to feel their pain. None of the villagers seemed to acknowledge Loudmouth's faux pas of stabbing a toad, though when asked about Toads the villagers would explain that they're the guardians of the valley.

Hoping to fight a village champion, Runt led the way to Horst's cabin - Dallon had told him to go there if he was itching for a fight. Horst, the grizzled old ranger tending a nasty leg wound, paid the party for killing the Owlbears nesting in a cave up the Tinkers' Road.

Back in the village, the beekeeper Kipp seemed to be trying to pass on a coded message. The party went back to the barn to consider things and regroup.

##### Session Three: Dellmarrow and the Dryads

After being summoned by Tyndareus (and believing he was some kind of deity), Zourin was sent to Dellmarrow to find and join the party. Malzahar and Runt were having lunch in the old barn. Runt challenged Zourin to an arm wrestle for entry into "the gang"; Zourin won after sucker punching Runt as soon as the struggle began.

Leaving the barn, the party found Jennrielle leaving the mill after an argument with her father. She was upset that Zakk and Alyssa are going to leave the village for university, even though they're younger than she is. Runt encouraged her to train up and watch for her opportunity to choose her own destiny.

Malzahar, Runt, and Zourin found Kipp the beekeeper and followed him into the woods. Away from the eyes and ears of other villagers, he explained that most of his "honey" was actually magic potions. "Everything in Dellmarrow is magic," he explained, "and the magic of Dellmarrow is to hide all magic from Dellmarrow. Does that make sense?" (No, it really didn't.)

The gang helped Kipp steal reagents from a coven of dryads in the deep forest. Despite listening to Kipp's plea to use nonlethal damage, Runt accidentally killed a boar. Kipp noted that he had really only asked that the dryads be kept alive, and suggested the boar be dragged back to the village and shared around. Ellinor was delighted to serve the wild beast up, and most of the village came out in an impromptu pot luck. Before the meal was served, the party visited Jennrielle again. Runt gave her a dagger (which was once Malzahar's cheese knife), and Zourin taught her some combat forms and defensive stances to start her training as an adventurer.

Zourin spent the night in Hettie and Allin's spare room, comfortable in a bed and dreaming beautiful dreams. Runt enjoyed pleasant dreams in the barn as well. Malzahar, however, was plagued with vague, dark dreams.

In the morning, the grain fields had collapsed and many of the villagers were inside the fences, bundling the grain and loading it onto carts. Allin explained that they knew the Tinkers would arrive today because this was the day of the Harvest. Malzahar asked how early they had been up to already have the grain scythed, to which Allin explained that the grain would just fall over when it was ready. After breakfast, Runt did some chores around the village to continue to show his gratitude for the villagers' welcome. Malzahar took a private history lesson from Master Uhthoff. Zourin asked Kipp for any fresh reagent seeds, which Kipp happily supplied.

Zourin tried to bring Jennrielle and Horst to the dryad clearing to offer the seeds. Horst grew furious at the suggestion that Jennrielle would leave the village with them, but after sending her home he was happy to join the mission. Malzahar and Runt followed along, but kept their distance from the dryads' clearing. Horst translated for Zourin and his peace offering of the seeds was tentatively accepted.

Upon returning to the village, the party went back to Jennrielle. Zourin tried to teach and tell her about prejudice and oppression, explaining that they're everywhere in the world and that if she can handle them here she can do fine out there. She listened eagerly to his words of encouragement.

##### Session Four: Into The Wound

The Tinkers arrive and Dellmarrow bursts into exuberant celebrations.

Asking about the iskarian beer, the gang is sent to Marivel's wagon at the end of the caravan. The inside of the wagon is strangely large. Marivel introduces an ancient-looking woman as her daughter, and has her prepare tea. Marivel is a bit disappointed to see the party - "I had hoped we would have more time to prepare. But alas, for as long as I've lived, I should have known better than that." She explains that she knew the group would arrive, as she dreamed about them long before they were born and knew their arrival would signify the beginning of the Next Age.

Malzahar asks if she knows Tyndareus. She hesitates, and listens to their descriptions of him. She seems particularly surprised by his magic skill - "doors? On this world? I wonder..." But she refuses to name what she's thinking about. She says it would be terribly disrespectful of this Tyndareus to make such an accusation about his identity without being completely certain.

Outside of Marivel's wagon, Dellmarrow has set up several festivities to celebrate the harvest. Runt cleans up at the pie eating contest and shares some of his prize with young Lenny. Jennrielle narrowly wins the Pig Chase, though she is horrified to do so with the assistance of a well-thrown handaxe from Zourin. Loudmouth reaches second place in the arm wrestling competition, losing narrowly to Horran the blacksmith.

The villagers, Tinkers, and party members enjoy the feast and the free-flowing iskarian beer (of which Loudmouth chooses not to partake). The beer makes drinkers feel giddy, light-headed, and deeply connected to everyone and everything in the valley. Zourin and Runt drink Horran under the table to get back at him for the arm-wrestling competition. Loudmouth takes possession of the cask of iskarian beer the party took for Tyndareus.

Suddenly, something like an earthquake rocks the valley. Malzahar and Loudmouth feel a strange pull towards the south. The villagers begin to panic. Marivel looks upset but not in the least surprised. As everyone tries to confirm that no one was hurt, Jaxxon notices that Jennrielle is missing. A young woman, Alyssa, soon speaks up, admitting that she knows Jennrielle had gone to The Wound. Zourin jumps into action as Jaxxon begs the party to bring his daughter home safe.

The gang quickly head through the Bone Hills and into The Wound: a nightmarish place where portals are continuously opening and closing, allowing hordes of undead to pass through. Over a hundred feet away, an injured Jennrielle is fighting through them, trying to reach a mysterious glowing crystal. During a tense battle, Jennrielle shouts that she had lied about never dreaming - she had been dreaming of this place and she knew it was her destiny. Before anyone could get through the shambling corpses to reach her, Jennrielle reached the crystal and, in a flash of violet light, disappeared.

Zourin tried to investigate the shrine where the crystal had been, but the undead were relentless. As Malzahar, Runt, and Loudmouth shouted to fall back, Zourin dove through one of the undead portals. Runt quickly followed him. They found themselves in a barren purple hellscape, surrounded by dozens of portals and millions of undead. Back at the Wound, Malzahar and Loudmouth, resources depleted, decided to run back to the village for help.

##### Session Five: Out of The Wound

A panicked Horst caught up to Malzahar and Loudmouth outside The Wound. He healed Loudmouth's wounds and sent Malzahar back to the village to fetch backup from Marivel. Horst cleared a swathe of undead with his crossbow and he and Loudmouth kept a path clear as they waited and hoped for Zourin and Runt to reappear.

Zourin and Runt held their ground against a crushing wave of undead, waiting for the portal they had jumped through to reappear. After two tense rounds of combat, the portal returned and spat them back into The Wound, along with most of the surrounding undead. The undead had seemed stronger inside their hell-world, but they were weakened when they passed through the portal.

Malzahar reached Marivel, who told him she had been scrying the whole situation. She was able to tell him that Zourin and Runt were safe and they were on their way back with Horst and Loudmouth. But when asked about Jennrielle, she shed a tear and told him Jennrielle had completely disappeared - "I looked. I looked in all the words neighboring this one, and she was nowhere." Knowing his companions were safe, Malzahar stayed with Marivel, probing more questions about the situation. Marivel revealed the prophecy of Jennrielle's birth and the reason the villagers had all tried so hard to keep her there. She also explained what she knew about the nature of The Wound. Finally, she suggested that Malzahar and his companions might grow in power and learn a lot from traveling with her group, perhaps to the Hall of Prophecies, and that they were welcome to join them.

That night, Loudmouth, Runt, and Malzahar slept in their barn, while Zourin enjoyed the hospitality of Tadd and Lorra's spare room. Strangely, overnight, the group's magic remained depleted. In fact, Loudmouth found himself unable to reach out mentally to his owner, Venistrath.

The gang said goodbye to the folks they had met in the village. Loudmouth apologized again to the Toads, who thanked him with a shiny white pebble.

The journey back to Tyndareus' tower was mostly uneventful, though there was the brief interruption of a group of bandits attempting to lead a Griffon through the woods so they could sell it. The party quickly dispatched the bandits and watched as the Griffon broke its chains and flew away. Loudmouth killed the bandit that attempted to run for his life. Zourin took the unconscious bandit as a hostage, much to the group's discomfort, so Loudmouth subtly imparted a fatal wound on the man under the guise of double-checking his pockets. Discovering this hours later sent Zourin into a brief but violent rage, which he directed at the corpse he had been dragging.

Tyndareus' tower looked like it had been abandoned for decades since it was last seen, though it had only been a matter of days. The portions that once looked like they were held up by magic had crumbled and fallen completely down. Tyndareus had left the group a note on his door, with the instructions for a spell. When the party followed those instructions, they were transported to an unfamiliar desert that stretched as far as the eyes could see. After a long rest and a short debate, the group set off into the desert heat, eventually finding the city of Vas Legas.

At the city gates, a dwarf who introduced himself as "Gideon, one of the First Ambassadors of Vas Legas", took down their information as part of his job to record arrivals and departures. He scolded the group for arriving in the desert instead of at the 'landing platform'; Malzahar realized the runes on the platform were related to the spell they had all cast together, and concluded that there was probably a way to exert more control over the spell and travel more consciously in future. Gideon spoke to them about the city and gave them a map marked with some points of interest. He also accepted a bribe to check his records for any signs of Jennrielle, or Zourin's adversary Captain Eldridge.

## Act 2

##### Session Six: The Vas Legas Heist

With a plan to reconvene at the King's Head tavern that evening, the group went in separate directions. Malzahar went to the mage's college and wasn't heard from again that night - it later turned out he was late for their meeting and didn't figure out where they'd gone until they all came back. Runt found himself a rowdy half-orc whore to kill time with. Nikyla went to a shabby bar in The Hills, where he was shocked to find Bones. Bones shared that he had gone on another mission for Tyndareus and then attempted to follow the group to Dellmarrow, where he met the Tinkers. He said the Tinkers had brought him here and were now set up in the shopping district. Zourin and Loudmouth went to the Water District to see if there was really water, and there they met the druid Freya and her pet raptor.

Freya hired the group to infiltrate the Bank of House Rabbitas in order to help her steal the Egg of Estyr. She gave them two options for infiltration - the quiet plan, and the loud one. The group chose the quiet plan, and so received the instructions:

1. Infiltrate Mrs Miggins' Cleaning Co.
2. Steal uniforms and branded wagon
3. Bluff guards
4. Enter bank in disguise
5. Incapacitate Bank Chairman
6. Steal keys
7. Enter vault
8. Escape in wagon
9. Profit

Steps 1-6 went off without a hitch. Zourin convinced the night guards that he was there to relieve them of their watch. He also covered the gangs' tracks inside Mrs Miggins' Cleaning Co. by planting evidence that they were being sabotaged by an up-and-coming rival cleaning company. Thoroughly disguised as cleaners, the group walked into the bank and spread out, looking for signs for how to proceed to the vault without notice.

Nikyla knocked out and impersonated the Bank Chairman. He convinced the guards to disarm the vault security so that the cleaners could get inside. Runt and Bones got to work emptying the bank's lockboxes while the rest of the group puzzled over the final security measures guarding the Egg. Freya managed to slip past the forcefield and grab the Egg. For a moment nothing happened, and then the back wall of the vault collapsed and a colossal Marshmallow Golem rampaged in, attacking with abandon.

Running up the stairs to escape the bank, Nikyla failed to maintain his bluff of being the Bank Chairman and the guards began to attack. It was a dicey encounter, which Nikyla, Freya and Zourin barely escaped alive, as the group loaded quickly onto their escape wagon.

##### Session Seven: Escape From Rabbitas Bank

With the bank collapsing behind them and the armed horse guards on their way, a wild chase ensued. A monk named Fynn had chosen their cart for a nap and was inadvertently dragged into the chaos. Nikyla and Freya collapsed quickly under barrages of crossbow bolts. Fynn and Loudmouth tanked a lot of the damage from the guards while Zourin encouraged Runt to drive quickly and carefully to the safehouse that Freya had told them about. It didn't take long to dispatch the guards and lose them in the streets. The gang accepted their payment from Freya and went back to the King's Head, where Malzahar was waiting with a book and some lunch.

Malzahar had gone to the mage's college, where he was recognized by the receptionist and given his belongings from their spelllock boxes. She told him to come back and meet with the Headmaster so they could catch up. She seemed particularly scandalized by the fact that Malzahar was an old man.

Zourin went back to the gates to hold his meeting with Gideon. Gideon believed Jennrielle may have passed through town with a wizard recently - "they paid enough not to register by name, but evidently not enough to hide all traces of their arrival." There was no indication that Captain Eldridge had passed through at all.

##### Session Eight: A Shopping Trip, an Assassination Attempt, and the Raegnor

With Nikyla nowhere to be seen, a strange fairy named Sprout attempted to ingratiate himself to the party. Loudmouth was quite distrustful of the new face, but since Sprout seemed so easily squishable, it was no problem to let him tag along.

The group went shopping with their heist money. Runt found a jumpy blacksmith who offered him a discount in exchange for protecting him from assassins that night. Bones, Malzahar, and Sprout found the intriguing Paper Dragon Bookery, where sentient books led shoppers to the correct sections of the maze.

As the group met up and left the market, the streets of the city fell unnaturally quiet. The whole city was staring in horror at a message in the sky: "**THE RAEGNOR HAS RETURNED.** HIS RULES SHALL BE ENFORCED AT THE NEW MOON." Half the city seemed to leap into action and flood towards the departure gates.

After defending the Blacksmith from his would-be assassins, the gang rested through the night. Sprout, Bones, and Runt went to The Hills to leave a message for the thieves guild seeking information about Jennrielle or Tyndareus.

In the morning, Malzahar and Loudmouth went to the Mage's College to meet with Headmaster Zebediah. Zebediah revealed that Malzahar had been an Ageless magician, young for centuries, and that the way he had lost his powers and memories was certainly through experimenting with unknown magic - "but your powers of divination were unrivaled. Did you know this would be the price, and choose this anyway? Was the risk worth it?"

Bones, Runt, and Sprout went to the Tinkers. Marivel confirmed the knowledge they had thus far received about the Raegnor. When asked if the Raegnor could be Tyndareus, she said she couldn't be sure without seeing the man, and that accusing someone of being the Raegnor was accusing them of genocide "and worse". She again invited the group to travel with her caravan through the worlds so they could see the Hall of Prophecies and learn for themselves how to control their destinies. She asserted that Sprout's connections on Vas Legas would not be enough to find Jennrielle and Tyndareus, as she had continued to scry for signs of the girl; "if Jennrielle is still alive, someone is hiding her."

The party regrouped and agreed to travel with Marivel. She and the tinkers brought them through the worlds to Leratia. Marivel indicated the Tinkers would be trading on a nearby world for three days, and left them with some parting advice: “This world, like your home world, does not know of other worlds or the places between them. You will be wise not to try to mention these facts to anyone; at best they will label you as crazy, but the consequences could be much worse. The Hall of Prophecies is a secret section in the archives of the library in the Academy of Leratia. It is a half day’s walk to the east. While you are here, if you find them, you can trust the Night’s Watch. And do try to rescue Vella if you can.” She could not confirm Vella's identity, but she was certain Vella would have information that would help their cause.

##### Session Nine: Getting Into The Library

Sprout, Malzahar, and Runt walked towards Leratia. They ran into a contingent of undead warriors on the road, the leader of whom was carrying a magical compass that pointed to the Academy - in fact, it led Sprout directly to an iron golem named Teacup.

The gang followed multiple avenues to find their way into the Library Vault. After meeting some students, they learned a little about the Night's Watch. Sprout, in fact, broke into the Night's Watch outpost in town (Finn the cobbler's shop) and learned enough of Finn's handwriting to forge some documents claiming that he had been welcomed into the Night's Watch. Runt tried to find the student named Tyen, but it was a dead end. Tyen had been conspicuously absent from classes for a few days and his roommate indicated he had been studying at the library for a few hours - but the librarian, Lauren, hadn't seen "that nice boy" in days. Malzahar went to see Headmaster Caiatris Gentleharp and was able to impress him with his Divination knowledge, securing a meeting with Lore Weaver Halfgrip to discuss an exchange of a guest lecture for access to the vault. As he left the Headmaster's office, a shady fellow accosted Malzahar in the stairwell, offering him access to the vault that night if he would do a security job for Professor Kilraker.

Malzahar explained his two leads to Sprout and Runt. They decided to approach Kilraker for the security job in the interest of getting quick access to the vault that night. Kilraker told them that someone intended to break into the vault that night to steal an artefact, and that they must be stopped. The group agreed to guard the vault in exchange for some free classes at the Academy.

Lauren the librarian escorted the group down to the vault. She let them try their hand at the easiest one of the three puzzle doors on the way, to give them a taste of how hard the locks were and how secure the vault was meant to be. After ten minutes, Sprout came up with the solution to open the door just before Malzahar did. Runt had made an excessively lucky guess that turned out to be correct, but didn't say anything before Sprout acted. We left our heroes at the door of the Library Vault, just as Lauren opened it for them.

##### Session Ten: In The Hall of Prophecies

Bones, Loudmouth, Runt, Sprout, and Willard entered the Library Vault. Lauren showed them a map, gave them a few warnings about the security systems and "waking the librarians", then left them until dawn.

Almost immediately, the group marched towards the Hall of Prophecies. Without moving silently enough, the group woke up one of these mysterious "librarians". The noise of the battle drew the attention of several more as Sprout used a few Booming Blade cantrips and Bones used the Toll The Dead spell. But the gang made short work of the strange cloaked creatures and were soon on their way into the Hall. They were held up briefly by a complex puzzle door, which they solved with the help of Loudmouth's ability to Comprehend Languages and some quick work with thieves' tools.

Inside the Hall of Prophecies, each member of the group felt pulled towards a unique orb. Curiosity took them one by one as they listened to words spoken long before their births, describing events yet to pass. To everyone's surprise, Jennrielle was also in the Hall of Prophecies. She was there only as an illusion, and asked for help to lift the orbs she needed to listen to. The first was the prophecy of her birth that Marivel had explained after she went missing. The second was about some powerful artifacts called the "Seven Sisters". Jennrielle explained that she had been traveling with and learning from a very kind man whose friends call him The Raegnor, and that he was looking for the Sisters. She wasn't sure if the Raegnor was Tyndareus, but she was sure that despite his friends' claims that he was powerful enough to command anyone in any world, that he wouldn't do bad things with his power. The group also listened to the Rule of Succession, learning that "Each millenia, the cycle restarts. One magician to rule them all, the Raegnor defeats his predecessor to earn his title." Could this have been the prophecy Marivel was talking about when she said the party coming together was a sign that the next era was coming?

Back in the Vault, the group set watches in a few locations. Willard managed to convince a "librarian" to block all the side doors with chests so that anyone who might have been trapped in the defensive maze would stay there the whole night. But then, as he set up to watch from a central location, a scared student named Tyen approached him for help. Tyen had snuck into the vault to smuggle out an artifact - but he insisted he wasn't a thief. The artifact was a woman named Vella who had been turned into a book, and the school was going to keep her captive. But Tyen had promised her he would help her get her body back, and he knew that he could never do so if she was locked in the vault. It had taken all his magic to get himself down there and remain undetected for the night, and now he knew he could only get out with help. Runt excitedly recognized him as the person they had been looking for and a member of the Night's Watch, so he was ready to trust him right away. Sprout and Willard were less trusting, but open to what Runt was saying. Loudmouth was firmly sure they should turn Tyen in as the thief and even caught him briefly in a net.

After much debate about how important it was to keep their word to Kilraker and guard the vault from thieves, the gang decided to trust Marivel's earlier advice. They would smuggle Vella and Tyen out of the vault and out of the Academy. Bones would cast invisibility on Tyen so that he could leave with them when Lauren showed up in the morning. And Vella was given to Malzahar, to add to his Bag of Book Holding, where she could blend in with the other tomes. Tyen warned that Vella communicated by reading the thoughts and memories of anyone who touched her with their bare skin, and urged the group not to take her out of the leather satchel he had carried her in. He described communicating with her as a "double-edged sword".

##### Session Eleven: Learning Things

Malzahar, Runt and Willard stuck to their plan of helping Tyen and Vella escape the Academy. Kilraker was furious to hear they hadn't caught any thief in the vault, but he stuck to his word and helped the gang sign up for a few classes as payment. Willard went to "Lore and Languages" and "Natural Sciences"; Runt eagerly attended "Battlefield Discipline" and "Being Buff"; and Malzahar sat through "Ancient Runes" and "Chronomancy". They all came away feeling enriched with knowledge. Malzahar kept his meeting with Lore Weaver Halfgrip and arranged to teach a special "Introductory Divination" seminar, which Willard also attended. Malzahar became something of a campus celebrity as his lesson was so well received by those who attended.

On their way to their scheduled meeting with Marivel, they found Tyen in a poor disguise outside the Academy gates. He asked if he could leave with them, as he knows he will need to travel far and wide to find the knowledge necessary to return Vella to human form. Marivel agreed to let him join the Caravans on their travels, insisting no other path would lead to so many worlds. Marivel looked sick to her stomach to learn that Jennrielle was traveling with the Raegnor, and even more disturbed to hear the Raegnor was seeking the Seven Sisters. "The Seven Sisters are also known as the Relics of Eternity," she explained. "If the Raegnor is looking for these items, we’re in more trouble than I thought. Holding all of them - he would be unkillable. The worlds would be subject to his rules for the rest of time."

Marivel taught the group how to travel between worlds without her help, though the powerful spell still takes the energy of the entire group to handle it. She warned them that the Raegnor's agents would be watching the paths between the worlds. She gave them directions to find the Market of All Realms, explaining that her people typically stay there for several weeks. The Caravans would learn what they could about the Seven Sisters so that the group can find them before the Raegnor. In the meantime, she already knew the location of one artefact - the "Coin of Control" was actually hidden back on their homeworld. Unfortunately, Venistrath's agents had also located its hiding place, and it's only a matter of time before they find it for him. When he gets the coin, he'll give it to his master, who will put it directly in the hands of the Raegnor.

Marivel encouraged Loudmouth to fulfill his prophecy and defeat Venistrath while they are there. "But be careful - his master Inekara will surely seek revenge."

Back on Avalice, Runt delivered a falsified report to the head of the King's Guard, explaining his continued absence from his post. He requisitioned a wagon to bring the party down to the edge of the long-abandoned Mangrove Swamplands, where Marivel had indicated they would find the Coin in an old ruined Keep. While crossing the final stretch of swamp to approach the ruins, the group was attacked by a swarm of crocodiles and their giant leader. They made it out with just a few nasty bites.