2x21: The Return

The Saints packed up their things to cross the frozen river with as much of the dead white dragon’s treasure as they could hold. Holly rode up ahead to Vasselheim with their new summoned mount, a gryphon named Beaky, and waited for the party to arrive. Halfway to Vasselheim they ran into a group of frost giants who were waiting to claim their half of the dragon’s treasure. The two groups decided however that the saints would strike at the fortress of the veil while the giants assisted them, to protect the frost giant’s lives in the utespire mountains. The party arrived at vasselheim at night and went to a bar where they acquired a decanter of endless ale, and it put them to sleep in the bar. The next day Tannin, Holly and Lupin went to Forscythia for the location of the items they were searching for. In return, she gave Lupin and Tannin each a hag curse. Tannin became emotionally distressed as she implanted in his mind the idea that he had lost a family member, and Lupin was cursed to dream of the hag’s horrific visage every time he slept. She told them that the Boros Ring was stolen by a mage from the Feywild, and then stolen from the druid who took it by Neela Doratian, a Paladin of the Veil. She also gave the location of the Kiss of the Changebringer, knowing it to be in the Skyneedle in Tal’Dorei, or “Tal Zappo Zappo” as it is called. Afterwards, Lupin and Tannin went to the Cobalt Vault to do research while the rest of the party searched around for clues on the werewolf that had apparently murdered in the city last night. Tannin found a book on demons, learning the true name of a shadow demon, and Lupin found a book in Aquan retelling the battle of gemstone dragons against an ancient primordial entity. Frovroth and Iselda sold a whole lot of magical items and bought some cyphers from a sketchy pawn shop. They then found a freshly killed body by a creature with claws, but could not find the culprit. Eventually everyone met up again, sent a message to the giants to work out a time to invade the fortress, and rested, prepping for an assault.

Part 2: **The Fortress**

After preparing for a fight, they teleported into the circle at the top of Salkyre tower, to a circle that Tannin had seen before when he was a part of the faction. Once in, a glyph went off on the intruders, banishing most of them for a short amount of time while the guards attempted to alert the castle. They were killed though, and the banishment eventually ceased. The party descended the stairs, killed a few guards, and Holly and Iselda assumed the identities of two deceased paladins. Iselda played a hand of cards, taking the identity of “Nerle” as Holly searched the fortress for the captain under the guise of “Marcus”. Holly persuaded their way into the room of Neela Doratian, the individual who had the Boros Ring on her. She was furious at being woken up, yelling “I will smite you, Marcus!” but followed Holly to the site they claimed needed attention. The party ambushed her the paladins playing cards with Iselda, calling in their Frost Giant reinforcements. Neela erected a wall of force, blocking off half of the party, and a group of young recruits and paladin reinforcements rushed in. During the battle, Neela Dorathian was set upon by small toys, stabbed by a floating dagger, attacked by the specter of one of her soldiers, and then finally de-limbed and stabbed by Tannin. As she fell she swore that the Lichbreaker would come after them, and tannin grabbed the Boros Ring. The groups ended up defeating the enemies in this tower, and holly went on a killing spree, spilling blood and climbing under the bridge to the second tower, releasing an army of toys to raise the portcullis. Lupin destroyed a ballista that was about to skewer him, and Tannin cast dimension door, appearing in the center of the mess hall, alone, where the captain of the fortress, Dirtram Vinerath was waiting for him. Tannin counterspelled silence from Vinerath, awakening his Wand of Atheneum. After a one-sided battle, Tannin was cut down by Vinerath and his men, and was about to be picked up by his former mentor when Holly rushed in, dodging several attacks, and dimension-doored back to safety, healing him.

Meanwhile, Iselda and Frovroth barged into a room where three wizards were chained up, creating glyphs for the veil. As soon as Iselda entered the room, however, the captive slaves had glyphs of disintegration activated on each of them, and they were all killed. Iselda and Frovroth then rushed towards the bridge of the third tower to attack it. Lupin, still stuck in the second tower where Vinerath and his paladins were, was set upon by those attempting to pursue their target through the castle. He was knocked unconscious, but stabilized by the enemy. Tannin picked himself up, after being successfully silenced by the captain, seeing Vinertath rushing towards him and Holly, and sent a fireball, using the power of the Pale Stone to cast it without speaking, crippling the captain, who fled back into the tower with his men. Iselda took out a few soldiers at long range across the chasm between towers, and frovroth had a bit of trouble with a door, until he sliced it in half. A frost giant broke through the roof of the final tower and together, the party killed the rest of the veil soldiers, tracking down those retreating. However, in the aftermath they discovered that Vinerath, his four best men, and Lupin had disappeared, teleporting away. The group tended to their wounds, giving the frost giants the bodies of the slain veil members, tossed all the weapons they could find into the river, and burned the tents outside the castle. As they were gathered together, Tannin cast Sending, contacting Lupin.

Lupin, after he was revived in the center of the Citrine Garrison by none other than Alaxar, was given a Gem curse like Frovroth had taken weeks ago. Emerald crystals sprouted from his body and he became loyal to the Veil cause, responding to the message from Tannin with a confrontation, saying that they could join the Veil or he would hunt them down.

The group left the castle and found a place a few miles into the Timberlands to camp inside a conjured tower, resting until they could set off for Wildemount to gather Galebreaker, wishing to gain power before confronting Lupin and Alaxar in Emon.