Expedition 56: The Ash Lord is a Bro

### Summary

We are invited to dinner with the Ash Lord, but the Mother returns to ruin the party. Clarity meets the Earthen Guide.

### Detailed Writeup

Early on the 24th of Monsarren, our party set out in Yezra’s ship, *The Granddaughter of Tempus*, towards Ferroc in a light rain. We had, with difficulty, RSVP’d to the Ashlord’s offer of a dinner, sending Sorin, Clarity’s familiar, to the Ashlord’s realm. We brought with us “Miss T.,” our reliable diplomat, who had advised us well about the fey. We carried with us the Ashlord’s gift, a pair of fine bracelets, though we did not wear them, as the terms of his gift were not understood.

To refuse gifts until the contracts behind them were clear was just one of many warnings we were given. Miss T. had been meticulous in instructing us about the fey: we were not to give our names, for the fey would have power over us. We were to never allow an obligation to be held over us by verbal parlance. We rehearsed our pseudonyms as we travelled over the waves, determined to beat the masters of negotiation at their own game and win a place for the Vaxilondrav clan (and a very nice Mystical Manse) on Ferroc.

As we approached the island, we immediately noticed a stone giant, tall and hale, wearing a large sash of bulging bags and carrying a knife. He waited for us to land, creeping over hills to steal glances at us. Unwilling to approach him, we sailed far around the island. It was a fortunate decision.

When we climbed ashore, we were greeted by the Mother and one of her children. The Mother, the Ashlord’s wife, had taken the form of a tree to await us, and we were unable to pierce her disguise. Her child, a small, wiry fey with a mouth overflowing with razor-sharp teeth, was quiet; she herself welcomed us to the Ashlord’s domain and invited us to travel with her to his hall.

While we travelled, we learned many things: the Mother can tell a lie immediately once spoken. The giant we had seen earlier, one Mrilgard, was in her service and had been sent to watch for and kill us, though she could not do us harm while we had a clearly negotiated hospitality agreement. The Mother and the Ashlord were married, but their relationship was unequivocally hostile.

After a somewhat difficult cliff-climb to arrive at the Ashlord’s realm, we stepped through the portal into the Feywild. The Ashlord’s rocky cavern was magnificent, filled with beautiful treasures, lit by Will o’ Wisps, and made of hardened magma. The Ashlord accepted us at his table, pleased that we had not fallen for the obvious trap of the bracelets, and told us they were gifts freely given. We began the feast with some truly horrific wine, and got to talking.

When the time came to negotiate for settlement rights, Vivian conjured a Major Image of a pipe organ and played her song, “The Flesh of Sea and Fire,” for the Ashlord. As it spun out from her mind, she lost all recollection of it, but her performance was flawless, the gifting magnificent. No lesser bard could have matched it. The Ashlord was moved beyond reason, and offered a boon of Vivian’s choosing.

While she contemplated this weighty decision, the celebrations were interrupted. The snaggle-toothed fey fish previously seen on the island, the Lurrigon, had been invited to the festivities. It arrived and was welcomed by the Ashlord, who (with our recommendation) forbade it from working enchantments and deceptions but made no claim upon its right to physical violence. It promptly tried to eat us.

The ensuing fight was brutal. First Prism, then Stormfriend, were swallowed, but we gave as good as we got. Stormfriend consumed the fish with lightnings; Prism unleashed a blight spell inside it’s unnatural belly-dimension, Bookbinder plunked away with firebolts, and Vivian killed the creature--temporarily, as it is of the Toololmananani-- with a psychic strike. As it exploded into water, the Ashlord carefully avoided getting any of the fluid on himself. Stormfriend was quickly revived from near-death, and the party helped itself to the Stormpierce Spear, a mighty weapon belonging to some poor soul the Lurrigon had swallowed ages ago.

Violence abated and talks resumed. The Mother attempted to draw Vivian into a contract to offer her a song, promising great but perhaps poisonous rewards. Ultimately, a slip-up allowed her an opening: Stormfriend, after contacting her cousin Nexrin, spoke his name, allowing the Mother to piece together his identity as Nexrin Vaxilondrav. Vivian quickly promised a song of equal quality to the one given to the Ashlord in exchange for the Mother and the Court’s forgetting of this name, to be delivered in two month’s time. The Mother accepted, and forgot her advantage.

Stormfriend and Vivian eventually took up the Ashlord’s offer in lieu of settlement rights to Fer-roc, which would be difficult to grant: the Ashlord agreed to use his mastery of the earth to raise new land from the sea, a whole new island rich with leylines. To do this he would have need of a powerful gemstone, a Heart of Fire, which we would need to acquire. He was careful to leave our options open, allowing us to choose another boon later if the Heart proved impossible to gain.

With this, Stormfriend and Vivian’s business was concluded, though Prism would have far more to do in the coming time. Another guest had arrived at the Fey Court: a strange, brown-skinned tiefling-like creature from the Plane of Earth, who called herself the Earth Guide. She moved with the weight and force of a giant and wielded magic ancient and powerful. She claimed relationship with Prism’s parents and spoke at length with her, though their conversation was carefully shielded from prying ears by Vivian’s aggressive flute playing.

Eventually, the Earth Guide departed to the Plane of Earth, and we to the Materium. From the Ashlord’s realm we returned to our boat, having only one last encounter: a wandering Shaman, covered in bandages that seemed to contain only objects, no flesh, inside them. The “Coiling Runes,” the Ashlord’s Vizier as he described himself, offered a trade of spells: an exchange of knowledge. Prism took him up on the offer, learning two new magics in exchange for first level spells. However, given the unusual eagerness the creature showed for so mechanical an exchange, and also because he was super creepy, Stormfriend insisted on cutting off the bargaining and returning to our vessel.

This we did. We returned to town to face a nasty surprise: a whole day had passed while we bargained in the fey. But we had our freedom, mostly; had new opportunities in abundance; and had a small profit from the bracelets. The mission could not be called anything but a success.

**Mission Result:** The Vaxilondrav Clan is closer to gaining new lands; Success.

**Loot:** 3 gold of jewelry, Stormpierce, a debt of one song, knowledge of two spells, and Opportunity.