47. A Year in a Day

* With Cormorant's funeral concluded in the evening, Aerendyl, Clwyd, Pyt, and Wilfred pass the time until their trip to the River King's home.
	+ Pyt finds Mackerel's wand in the grass where she'd dropped it. It's a piece of wood with a tiny, talking humanoid skull on the end. It goes by the name of Skully and proves to be of great use, firstly as a weapon (a *+1* *wand of the war mage*), and also as a fountain of knowledge, having not only been in Mackerel's possession for several thousand years, but having worked with a number of great and powerful witches before her as well. All the same, Skully proves himself to be fussy and particular, and he gets Pyt to agree to have a little sombrero made for him, featuring a wavy green stripe around its brim and a strap to keep it from falling off. Aerendyl ultimately ends up in possession of the sentient wand; Pyt lacking the appropriate spells to take advantage of Skully's particular talents.
	+ Wilfred identifies a bunch of the stuff they took from Mackerel's hut:
		- The flesh-clad book with a screaming face is revealed to be a M*anual of Flesh Golems*
		- The sealed metal bottle is an *Iron Flask,* a truly powerful magic item that can be used to seal a single creature within it. It currently housed one such creature, though Wilfred's spell was unable to discern the identity.
		- The chained-up book was revealed to actually just be a regular, non-magical book itself, though it too had a creature sealed within that the spell could not discern the identity of.
		- The huge book with pages nearly fully black is, in fact, a complete transcript of every word spoken in Sawtooth Basin and the Pirate Republic in the last year, all written out in an unbelievably small font. However, the lack of speech markers and the chaotic nature of conversation make the thing all but impossible to follow.
		- Wilfred is unable to read the languages the two spellbooks are written in.
* When the moon appears in the sky, the quartet find its milky reflection waiting for them at the shoreline. They take the plunge, swimming down until they inexplicably break the surface of the water in the River King's cave.
	+ The fey had redecorated since Aerendyl had last visited. The place was bigger for one thing, and a stream of crystal clear water ran along the ground around their ankles. The geodes sparkled blues and greens and whites, more vibrant than ever before, and passageways and tunnels led off to unknown annexes and extensions all about the place.
	+ As they followed Aerendyl's lead and headed upstream, the party walked past a set of huge crystalline stalagmites. Frozen within, slowly dissolving into nothing, were the corpses of the creatures they'd hunted these past few nights - the true lycanthrope and shadow mastiff from the Moonlit Isles, as well as the Night Mother herself; and next to her, Old Mackerel and the Weird Goat. June the Maiden's corpse had evidently already been harvested in full, the power it had contained already being put to use.
	+ They find the River King relaxing at the edge of a small lake, completely naked, his form healthy again, full of lithe, supple muscle. His hair was long enough to reach the bottom of his back now, and shifted from hews of deep blue at its roots to the purest sea-foam white at its tips.
	+ The fey swam over to the group, cupped Aerendyl's face in his hands, and brought his own face in close, invasive in his intimacy, paying no heed to the other three as they watched on. He praised Aerendyl, 'his boy,' for having down so well, honouring their agreement so faithfully and in such good time. Soon the River King was out the water, slinking around the elf, folding dripping arms around Aerendyl's shoulders and whispering into his ear that he'd like to give him further gifts.
	+ Eventually the River King span around the address the group, and in doing so a set of long, layered robes materialised on him with a spray of water.
	+ The River King wished to reward the group for their surplus efforts, since the original agreement was only for the witches to be given to him. In any case, he'd like some time with Aerendyl, but the offer was extended to the rest of the party as well - a year in the River King's home, and in that time but a fraction of a day would have passed out there. This generous offer was predicated on Clwyd and Aerendyl giving over the Pieces of Shadow they held, those being concentrated pieces of the Night Mother's magic.
* The party decide to accept the River King's offer and spend a year in his home.
	+ The River King leaves Clwyd, Pyt, and Wilfred to their own devices, providing them with all manner of luxury - the finest food and drink, the ability to read any language while in their chambers (for Wilfred to get his reading done, mostly), the chance to embody complete sloth and still not suffer the deterioration of their bodies (Clwyd spends the first month doing pretty much nothing and is no less healthy for it), fine music, or art, or poetry. He could play out scenes and scenery like a movie on the surface of the pools about his caves. The only thing they ever lacked was the companionship of anyone but their little group; no others were brought to the caves in the time they spent there.
	+ Aerendyl:
		- Having left the others to their own amusements, the River King had taken Aerendyl somewhere private. He laid the elf down on a block of crystal, then told him that he'd thought the goblins the party had encountered on Freetown's beach were fascinating. They seemed to poison themselves, bit by little bit, until they could tolerate the toxins completely. Then they'd up the dose, and they'd poison themselves again. The River King had thought it a marvellous trick. He produced handfuls of tiny horrors as he spoke - a blue-ringed octopus, piles of cone snails in their beautiful shells, spindly jellyfish held in globules of water, spiders and ants, wasps and hornets, frogs and toads, and all manner of snakes. And with the promise that he'd make his boy strong, so began the torture. The River King poisoned Aerendyl again and again, each morning, afternoon, and evening, every single day for nine months straight. Whenever Aerendyl's body looked ready to give out, the River King would bring him back from the cusp. And when at last Aerendyl grew used to the sting or bite or touch of one of the beasts, the River King would double the dosage. It was a long time before Aerendyl could do much more than suffer and scream during his day. But the time did pass, he Aerendyl's body did grow stronger, more used to the toxins.
		- After nine months, Aerendyl was capable of moving about after the evening dosage. This was when he worked with the two quicklings they'd captured. The River King had kept Teal and Aqua caged up, bored and waiting, readying them for Aerendyl's training. The River King had removed whatever connection was once in place between them and the Phantom Coven, and in its place Aerendyl was to instil loyalty and subservience to the River King and himself. Soon the elf was sending the pair out on little skirmishing missions about the Pirate Republic, where they'd be tasked with stealing something or other - they got Wilfred a magnifying glass one time so he could have a go at reading the massive book with tiny writing. All the while, Teal and Aqua groaned and grumbled at the hard work in their own way, but their only real complaint was that they wanted their older sister there with them as well.
		- Whatever free time Aerendyl had left, he devoted to quizzing the River King and Skully on the denizens of Faerie, keen to learn more about their tricky ways.
	+ Clwyd:
		- She spent her year firstly reading the *Manual of Bodily Health*, making her body hardier and rendering the magics of the book inert. She briefly flirted with the idea of trying to logic-and-reason Faerie's magic to make time pass quicker for the book (which would theoretically regain its magic after 100 years), but Faerie is rarely so compliant or logical as that, and not least when it's actually the whims of a temporarily mollified archfey that are providing the time dilation they were experiencing.
		- Clwyd enjoyed a long period of idleness, and then started looking into Weird Magic, thoroughly reading Mackerel's recipe book on the subject. She also negotiated holding onto one of the Pieces of Shadow for a while before handing it over to the River King, so that she could experiment with the piece of witchy magic.
	+ Wilfred:
		- He took to reading the spellbooks Mackerel had been keeping as trophies. The Abjurer's book was written in Dwarvish and the Transmuter's book was in Elvish. Where he lacked the supplies to copy spells, or indeed the skill to understand some of the spellwork, Wilfred instead transliterated the writings into Gnomish in a common ink, such that he might transcribe the trove of spells into his own spellbook at a later date.
		- Wilfred's abjuration improved greatly over the year, likely from studying the works of this once-great Dwarvish Abjurer.
		- He also read the first and oldest of Mackerel's sixteen diaries - the only one he'd taken from her library so far.
		- Finally, he worked on a spell of his own creation.
	+ Pyt:
		- Spent most of the year fucking around.
		- Helped assist the River King in poisoning Aerendyl a bunch, since he was interested in poisons. Doesn't seem like he learned much.
		- Learned to summon a flying mount at some point.
* On the day that marked one year and one day since their arrival, the River King bade them farewell and sent them on their way. They returned to the shore of Mackerel's island, sopping wet from the sea water they'd swam through, and with little more than six hours having passed in Terca Mahres for all the time they'd spent in the River King's domain. (*Specifically, the River King turned the days the party experienced in his home into minutes in the mundane world. As such, 369 minutes precisely had passed since they'd first taken the plunge.)*
* Having returned from the River King stronger than when they left, the four of them decided to go plunder Old Mackerel's house.
	+ The sitting room:
		- They see Taylor, still puzzling over the chessboard, looking exhausted but unable to rest; Mackerel had ordered him to man the board before she'd left him, 18 hours or so before. Wilfred dispels the Weird Magic binding Taylor and the man starts freaking out the moment the glamour leaves him, revealing the horror of the living chess pieces and the mad hut in general. The group hear him raving, mumbling that he was once a prodigy in military training, but in his first real conflict, he couldn't bring himself to make the right calls and so many died. 'Some conductor,' he'd spat. Taylor had apparently deserted soon after his failure.
		- The party try and calm Taylor down a little and then have him go sit outside, get some air, and wait for them.
		- Next Wilfred tries and fails to break the binds on the chessboard. Three brownies and two sprites die screaming as a result of his failed attempt. The gnome is panicking, but he tries again and this time successfully breaks the magical bonds.
		- The sprites line up and give an intricate, formal salute with their tiny swords, saying 'the Wings of the Spine Forest shan't forget this!' before flying away with great haste, out the front door of Mackerel's hut.
		- The brownies, however, don't think they can repay the debt with the same sort of promise. The oldest brownie, the one who'd been occupying the position of king on the chessboard, says they're but a humble folk, mostly good at fixing the odd thing and staying out of sight of big folk. He doesn't know how they could ever be much use to the party. Wilfred and the group strike up a deal with the helper fey: the sixteen of them that had survived were to travel with the party back to Bisquay, repairing the ship as it needs it, and then all debts would be square. In Bisquay, they'd be able to meet other brownies or travel through the fey crossing there if they chose to do so.
		- The eldest fey gives his name: **Chestnut**. The next oldest, a matronly little figure who'd been the queen piece gives hers: **Hazel**. The other fourteen follow suit: **Acorn**, **Toast**, **Autumn** **Leaves**, **Coffee Beans**, **Chocolate**, **Mud Puddle**, **Curry Sauce**, **Burnt Butter**, **Rabbit Fur**, **Ropes**, **Owl Bear Feathers**, **Rusty**, **Mahogany**, and **Poop**.
		- The party have the brownies wait outside with Taylor, telling them to comfort the distressed man if they can manage it. (*They can't speak common and Taylor can't speak Sylvan, but the little guys try their best all the same.*)
	+ The room they'd heard fighting from before (and still hear fighting from now):
		- Inside they see a fair sized fighting arena behind more viewing glass. Within, quasits and imps fought to the death, with more of each spilling out from some hidden areas on either side of the tiny colosseum.
		- Clwyd smashes the glass and imps and quasits start swarming out. They go to kill the opposite faction on sight, but otherwise appear to be making a break for it.
		- Clwyd shoves a *sickening radiance* spell down on the area the quasits are running out into, melting almost all of them on arrival, and leaving the few survivors as easy pickings for some *eldritch blasts*.
		- Several members of the party try talking to the imps but get no response. In all, 14 imps escape the room, flying out the hut and away, into the nighttime air of the Pirate Republic.
		- The party find a seal at either end of the enclosure, one infernal (and linked to the Fourth Hell, apparently), one abyssal. They destroy both.
		- Clwyd contacts Nix, telling him they just released a bunch of imps into the Pirate Republic and that he might be able to swing it into a favour from someone. He doesn't really respond, other than to say that it seems like she's been busy lately so they should meet up soon.
	+ They go back to the library:
		- One of the flameskulls has reconstituted and is waiting for them. The fight is brief, and again results in the flameskull being left as a pile of shattered bone and dust on the floor.
		- The library is still trashed from the previous fight and, most notably, Clwyd's thunderstep that had ended it.
		- The group pour through the piles of books and stuff.
		- Wilfred takes the three other numbered grimoires that weren't destroyed in the previous fighting: book numbers 4, 5, and 16.
		- He also finds one book on Meenlocks and one book on Rumid the Great that he decides to take.
		- Between all the damage to the room and books, and the fact that almost all of the tomes are unmarked, the process of finding just these books on topics he is interested in takes Wilfred two hours or so. The group leave the room before they have to deal with the flameskull again.
	+ Aerendyl casts *Locate Creature: Quickling*, and gets a response in one of the rooms they'd gone past already. He and Wilfred team up, with Aerendyl pointing out where the creature was behind the door, then kicking the door in so that Wilfred could get off a high-level sleep spell before the little speedster could react. Mauve, the purple-haired quickling, was crying on her little bed when they got her. They tied her up while she slept, using the last of their rope, and then Pyt re-summoned Jolene (who wasn't as much of an asshole as usual after her time off) and had her keep guard over the quickling as she'd done before with Teal.
	+ They find Mackerel's bedroom and within they get a jar of Mackerel's ointment - which has fairly potent healing properties - and a trunk full of fine fabrics.
	+ In the pantry, they find a gnome-sized jar full of some black substance. They crack the lid and get attacked by the black pudding that was sealed within. Aerendyl's armour gets damaged, but most of the group were able to run away before any real damage was done. Pyt polymorphed the thing into a mouse and Aerendyl caught it and shoved it back into the jar.
* Satisfied that they'd got what they could from Mackerel's hut, the group of four go back outside, Pyt summons his hut, and they all decide to wait until the sun's up.
	+ Taylor and the brownies fall asleep immediately. The party, still on River King time, can't get to sleep.
	+ The next day (*Allbloom 40; 6th night of the full moon*), the group sail for Freetown to get some supplies. Aerendyl trades half the cloth they'd got from Mackerel's room for the sailing supplies the group needs, and then they take the rest to Mennick and the Rum Runners.
	+ Inside Mennick's Real News HQ, Mennick is puzzling over a broadsheet mock-up of his newspaper. He shows it to Pyt, including the section with Pyt's column, *the Truth Behind the Tantrums, part 1 of 10*. Then he shows off the fact that the broadsheet is itself a magic item, capable of folding up into a beautiful, intricate paper facsimile of a bird. Mennick intends to set up some printing presses around the world, and after his yet-to-be-recruited network of agents have sent him truths, he'd produce a few of these broadsheets, have the birds fly to the presses, and then the real news would be distributed to the people.
	+ Pyt takes two of the magical pages so that he can finish his column. He reimburses Mennick the costs - 100gp per page - though Mennick stresses that Pyt isn't paying him for the pages, merely allowing Mennick to buy two more in the future.
	+ Buy from whom? Well, from the dodgy artificer in the wilds of the western empire - guy who calls himself Halcyon.
	+ During this exchange, Skully tells on the group whenever they lie.
	+ Before the party leave, they swap the rest of the cloth with the Rum Runners for some of their Freetown rum. Pipes the dwarf gives them 50 gallons of the stuff, one bathtub's worth, filling up the now-empty cloth trunk with it.
* Finally, the group go to see Rascal on Many Apples.
	+ They have a chat with the guy over food. His soldier Carmen stays in the room, but it's an otherwise private affair.
	+ When he notices the absence of Cormorant, Rascal asks after the man and then offers his condolences.
	+ The party tell Rascal that the witches are dead and that they're leaving the Republic. He's very happy about the former, and surprised by the latter.
	+ He tells the party that the Council of Nine will be meeting soon, since the Butcher's Regatta is held on Midsummer's Day (6 days away) and they always meet before it.
	+ Rascal had thought the group wanted to pursue their own goals on the Council, or at the very least follow Clwyd's interest in the Inferno. To that end, he'd looked into Madog a little to surprise them: he'd found out that Madog had soundly defeated the previous council member, Rockstone, and any who had supported him, out in the waters beyond the basin, following an honest challenge. Blasted them to bits, or so they say. There didn't seem to be too many in the Republic who were questioning the Inferno's strength these days. Add to that the fact that he'd brought a shit tonne of citizens with him, and to that the fact that they've been contributing to life in the Republic while not challenging any existing powers over land at all, and to that their willingness to interact with Old Mackerel (though that's no longer a factor), and Madog the Inferno seems to have deftly carved out a place for himself and his ilk here.
	+ Before the party left Fort Cider, Pyt went to the stables and spoke with Alonso. He paid the disgruntled former Rumidian 600 gold (mostly borrowed from Clwyd, thanks to Cormorant) for a strange-shaped saddle and took his leave. Then, outside, Pyt summoned Jude, his new peryton servant. He attached the saddle and hopped on - he was basically stood upright in the stirrups, resting snug against the bipedal bird-creature's back. Then Pyt and Jude took their maiden flight and Pyt nearly shat himself at the speed. But he did calm down enough to take in the lovely view of the Pirate Republic before they landed.
* With their business concluded, the group piled into *the Drunken Dragon* along with Taylor the Conductor and 16 brownies (who were staying hidden as much as possible). They pointed the bow to the Rolling Blue and set sail. Soon enough, the Pirate Republic was shrinking into the horizon behind them.

**Books Read on the Year in the River King's Caves:**

*Note: Mackerel made use of many languages in her writings. The Comprehend Languages spell, or an equivalent effect, are almost always going to be necessary to read her materials in full. The below were read during the year spent as guests of the River King, during which time he provided the effects of a Comprehend Languages spell for any that wanted it.*

* Grimoire I:
	+ The first and oldest of Mackerel's diaries. It is thick book with thin pages, and each is filled only with the barest bullet points rather than deep description. The period of time it covers is staggering in scope, though it has no convenient date markers at any points. The book features two massive stab wounds - one from Pyt's rapier, one from Cormorant's sabre - that make it more difficult to read.
	+ It tells of Mackerel's time spent as a mountain witch, and later what must have been centuries spent in and about the courts of Faerie, rising in power and rank, culminating with her gaining the position as one of Mab's handmaidens.
	+ During her time as a cunning woman of the mountain, a particular couple had come to her, a dwarf woman and a halfling man. They'd sought to conceive a child together, despite their biology preventing it. Mackerel had so twisted their words, and using her Weird Magics, had warped them both into oni, monstrous giant-kin that would seek children together for the rest of their lives, if only to eat them now. (*Later on, Mackerel would claim the pair as part of her trophy collection, keeping them in the mountain layer of her home for nostalgia's sake.*)
* The Weird Handbook:
	+ This book was Mackerel's quick reference for all the intricate pieces of Weird Magic she'd performed through the years, each of which would also be outlined within the many thousands of pages of her grimoires. Though the book apparently contains no magic of its own, just the collection of such Weird knowledge makes it unpleasant: humanoids find it uncomfortable to touch and hold, and the longer they do so, the worse the discomfort gets; eyes become dry and scratchy, skin itches and eventually reddens into rashes, hair withers and splits, nails start ingrowing and crack.
	+ It makes mention of the process of turning humanoids into oni, as above. This is a foul ritual, involving strange ingredients: 'twisted words,' 'an untold secret,' 'the blood of wicked giants,' and 'Mab's watchful gaze,' among other things.
	+ It also outlines the creation of a banderhobb, apparently a creature of shadow and flesh, useful for tracking down a target, doubly so if it possesses even a tiny piece of the creature or object in question.
	+ The dark magic that turns the skull of a dead wizard into a flameskull, sealing some of their magics within to create a bound undead guardian.
	+ The ritual for turning a willing humanoid - one that seeks vengeance above all else, but is often too weak to achieve it - into an oozing creature of stealth and assassination known as a slithering tracker.
	+ Some pages had been torn out carelessly, with only these words left in their place: 'Make No Mention of What Walks with Night in these Pages Again.'
	+ It also features a number of examples of items that, when prepped appropriately, substitute well for the components of various spells and make them much harder to counter.

**Items the Party Recently Picked Up:**

* **Manual of Flesh Golems**: This tome contains information and incantations necessary to make a flesh golem. To decipher and use the manual, you must be a spellcaster with at least two 5th-level spell slots. A creature that can't use the tome and attempts to read it takes 6d6 psychic damage. To create the golem, you must spend 60 days working without interruption with the manual at hand and resting no more than 8 hours per day. You must also pay 50,000gp to purchase supplies, though this cost can be reduced by 1000gp for each Medium humanoid corpse or 500gp for each Small humanoid corpse, down to a minimum of 20,000gp, provided the humanoid corpses have been dead no longer than two days and you have someone with proficiency in the Medicine skill assisting you in making the golem.
* **Scroll of Protection Against Fey** x3: Using an action to read the scroll encloses you in an invisible barrier that extends from you to form a 5-foot-radius, 10-foot-high cylinder. For 5 minutes, this barrier prevents fey creatures from entering or affecting anything within the cylinder. The cylinder moves with you and remains centred on you. However, if you move in such a way that a creature of the specified type would be inside the cylinder, the effect ends. A creature can attempt to overcome the barrier by using an action to make a DC15 Charisma check. On a success, the creature ceases to be affected by the barrier.
* **Scroll of Feeblemind**:
	+ Rules for spell scrolls: A spell scroll bears the words of a single spell, written in a mystical cipher. If the spell is on your class's spell list, you can read the scroll and cast its spell without providing any material components. Otherwise, the scroll is unintelligible. Casting the spell by reading the scroll requires the spell's normal casting time. Once the spell is cast, the words on the scroll fade, and it crumbles to dust. If the casting is interrupted, the scroll is not lost. If the spell is on your class's spell list but of a higher level than you can normally cast, you must make an ability check using your spellcasting ability to determine whether you can cast it successfully. The DC equals 10 + the spell's level. On a failed check, the spell disappears from the scroll with no other effect. The level of the spell on the scroll determines the spell's saving throw DC and attack bonus.
	+ Tl;dr for feeblemind scroll: On bard, druid, warlock, and wizard list so all four can use the scroll. DC 18 spellcasting ability check to use when below character level 15, and the scroll is destroyed even if the check fails. DC 18 Int save from target when the spell is cast from the scroll.
* **Iron Flask**:
	+ Legendary item!
	+ It's a sizeable iron flask with a brass stopper, but it is also currently sealed with a padlock.
	+ You can use an action to speak the flask's command word, targeting a creature that you can see within 60 feet of you. If the target is native to a plane of existence other than the one you're on, the target must succeed on a DC 17 Wisdom saving throw or be trapped in the flask. If the target has been trapped by the flask before, it has advantage on the saving throw. If a creature succeeds on its saving throw, it cannot be sealed inside the iron flask for 24 hours. Once trapped, a creature remains in the flask until released. The flask can hold only one creature at a time. A creature trapped in the flask doesn't need to breathe, eat, or drink, and doesn't age.
	+ You can use an action to remove the flask's stopper (once the padlock seal is removed!) and release the creature the flask contains. The creature is friendly to you and your companions for 1 hour and obeys your commands for that duration. If you give no commands or give it a command that is likely to result in its death, it defends itself but otherwise takes no actions. At the end of the duration, the creature acts in accordance with its normal disposition.
	+ The iron flask the party possess contains a creature, though they don't know what it is!
* **Chained-Up Book:** Actuallya mundane, non-magical book, though it does also have an unidentified creature sealed inside.
* **Other books**: Manual of Bodily Health (inert); book on Rumid the Great; book on Meenlocks; Pliny Set (101 leather bound volumes; complete works of the Great Twelve; worth roughly 20,000gp to the right buyer); sack full of scrolls that Wilfred thought were worth taking; Mackerel's 16 numbered grimoires; massive book with tiny writing (transcript of everything said in Sawtooth Basin in the last year; all but impossible to make sense of).
* **Mackerel's Ointment**: This clay pot, 3 inches in diameter, contains 10 doses of a thick, creamy mixture. The jar and its contents weigh 1/2 pound. As an action, one dose of the ointment can be swallowed or applied to the skin. The creature that receives it regains 2d8+2 hit points, ceases to be poisoned, and is cured of any disease.
* A trunk with 50 gallons of Freetown Rum.