Episode 3: Gladeston, Part 1

Ridley Elderstone activates the green orb

The next night, the players sleep in the hidden room downstairs to hide from any Ravenshire guards should they come searching for the now-outlaws.

Fan has a dream of a barren desert landscape. A **canary** sits in a cage. The cage opens, and the canary flies out and up into the sky. In the sky is what looks like a red comet, imposing, and Fan feels an increasing pressure in her chest before waking up. When she wakes, the tiefling ghost is standing before them. Fan wakes Kika, who begins to ask questions.

The tiefling does not answer and turns away, and a spectral illusion spreads to cover the entire room, showing the same barren landscape from Fan's dream. Behind Kika and Fan they can see the barrier, shimmering with its water-like surface.

“*In front of you, the landscape stretches into the distance, and as you look, it's like you are moving forward at extreme speed, away from the barrier and into the unknown. After a few seconds, the motion slows, and you see a small hill in this sea of flat land. You can make out a door, built into the side of the hill, almost like the entrance to a mine, but it is perfectly square in shape. On the front are seven star-shaped holes. The tiefling turns back to you, and reaches out with his right hand. He hands you something, and when you look, you can see it's his white star. And when you look up again, both he and the illusion are gone.”* - the ghost vision

The party decides it's time to move on. The ghosts seem to want them to go beyond the barrier and find this door, so they will continue on their quest to do so. They leave the Drum, but not before Ivana gives them supplies and a set of tinker's tools for Milla. Kika takes the seven crystal stars to use on the door in their vision, should they find it.

On the road to Gladeston, the party runs into a trap set by the Ravenshire guard. They manage to make it to the forest town of Gladeston, with at least guard sustaining an eye casualty thanks to Kika, and the final guard is sent on his way by a hooded figure on a horse who disables him and then instructs the horse to take him back to Ravenshire. The hooded figure reveals itself to be **Faelan**, Kika's half-orc mentor.

Faelan escorts the party to her hut in Matapeka, the druid encampment just outside Gladeston. Kika begins to explain the situation, but they are interrupted by a dark, tattooed woman who demands to know why a group pursued by the law is in their peaceful town. She is one of the members of the **Gladeston council**, the authorities of this town, and agrees to hear the party's case in the council chambers before they can be granted permission to stay.

The party presents themselves at the council chambers and provides the information requested of them. Fan, Milla and a halfling woman on the council geek out over popular book series *Steampunk Slug*. The council dismisses them and explains that they must deliberate and will have a decision the following day, and that they are welcome to stay with Faelan in the mean time.

Milla begins her examination of the sphere. Kika and Fan go shopping, and encounter an extremely drunk halfling man trying to trade a huge ruby for a silly hat. The halfling introduces himself as **Ridley**, and explains that all his gold was taken by bandits on his way to Gladeston – all he has left is the ridiculous ruby. Fan seems concerned for his well being, and she and Ridley agree he should follow the party until he's sobered up enough to *not* try to trade away his only valuable possession for a silly hat. Kika does not approve of the tag-along, but holds her tongue.

Fan, concerned about their low gold supply, goes on search of jobs around town, checking the two taverns' boards. She finds a flyer about a missing dwarf girl called Jun, talks to Jun's parents, and asks around town about her. A storm begins to roll in and the party eventually returns to Faelan's hut.

Milla is reluctant to reveal the sphere until Ridley agrees to keep his mouth shut about anything he sees or hears in the hut. She reveals the now dismantled construct, and **three colored orbs** she extracted from within, along with several strange looking cables and flat objects with metallic patterns etched into them. Ridley detects magic on the orbs, and is able to describe **shield magic** of some sort contained within the green orb, some sort of **lightning magic** in the blue orb, and a **fire ray spell** in the red orb.

Ridley channels a light shock of energy through his hands into the green orb, and it activates. A **green spherical shield** with the same shimmering, water-like texture as the barrier appears around him. The gang does some experimenting on the shield, discovering it doesn't do much to protect Ridley from anything at all. Kika has another light bulb moment and suspects it may be used to traverse the barrier.

The party turns in for the night in Faelan's hut – including Ridley. Meanwhile, a storm rages outside.

The following day, the party wakes to discover the town damaged from the storm. Faelan explains that the area has been experiencing far more frequent and violent storms than usual, and that she and the druids have been investigating the source with no luck. Something is blocking the druids' scrying. The party helps the townsfolk clean up after the storm, then continues their search for the missing dwarf Jun. Milla remains in town to help with repairs.

As they track Jun and boyfriend Francis into the forest, a stable boy called Yannick runs up to them for help – the stables were destroyed during the storm and the horses are missing, including the party's two horses. The party follows both trails into the forest, where they see signs of a bear in the area.

They find one dead horse being eaten by a goblin, who they spare, to the goblin's surprise. Three more horses have been cornered by a bear, and Kika uses her skills to tame the bear for a day. They take the three alive horses back to the stables, and set out to search for the last two.