July 20th, 2025
Vita, Custodia 26th, 1194 (Continued)
We pick up the magical gear on the fey. Virhilyth has a strange fragmented scroll of planeshift that has been modified in some manner. We use one of Ralzer’s flares and cast sending to alert the other group of our situation.
Mare, Custodia 27th, 1194
Graynor uses the special gloves to handle the Sword of Dawning Light. he then uses it to strike the cyst; it takes him several swings, but he does destroy it.
According to Caelia’s sending response, they found another cyst and “something else”.
We break our refuge items and go to Caelia. They are in a forest of pine trees, Ishtar thinks that it looks similar to the forest near his home. Quen the elf magus, has been life drained to death. Caelia says that it was arcane tentacles that did it and that they were encountered near the cyst. There is something else here, akin to a dryad, that is being drained and shackled here. We decide to head to the cyst first.
At the cyst, Graynor goes ham again. Afterwards we recuperate and then move to the dryad.
Caelia and company lead us to the dryad. She’s imprisoned in what may have been a tree at some point. Ishtar can see a blue aura on her. She has a collar on her that is similar to the one that Ishtar used to sport. Ty picks the lock and removes the collar, then Graynor heals her and she regains consciousness.
She introduces herself as She Who Sheds the Autumn Light in Druidic while addressing Ishtar. She is the Queen of Ravens, a Hamadryad. She thought that she was still on the Prime Material. Ishtar told her about how Kaajh’Kaalbh is corrupting this place. She recognizes that name, but hasn’t heard it in over 1,000 years. She doesn’t know how she was captured, she’s been gone about a year. She’s not familiar with the Oracle that Virhilyth mentioned. Her mythic powers were a gift from Dorylis.
We planeshift and then word of recall back to Ironwald Downs.
Graynor takes the collar to his church for research. We go meet Jarveth and get Ralzer resurrected. We debrief Jarveth on what happened in the fey realm. The sword has the ability to erase people from existence, make them forgotten—what if we use this on Kaajh’Kaalbh? It’s also intelligent.
We then head back to Ralzer’s to identify our items. Virhilyth’s staff is an artifact and overwhelming evil. His sword has a stronger evil aura than it’s magical property would normally have.
We discuss our next moves and decide on going to the last monolith. But first, we will have someone look at these items from Virhilyth.
At the Parish of Everlasting Knowledge we meet with Mikhail and he helps us get the sword identified with legend lore. It is Tir’vahl Drazekh, one of the Baleful Blades. It’s strike can splinter the mind. It was first wielded by a warlock king, Zaakhereth the Pale Flame; his kingdom was vanished. It was later glimpsed by scholars during a ritual that turned them mad, and then lastly wielded by Virhilyth. It was forged in the Null Forge, along with the other Baleful Blades.
Terra, Custodia 28th, 1194
We go back to the Parish of Everlasting Knowledge to get the staff looked at. It’s the Staff of the Chrysalis Tempest, Moladraeyn-Ae Seed of the Second Birth. It’s a prototype made by the Architects to control evolution. It’s a +3 quarterstaff containing the spells flesh to stone, baleful polymorph, and feeblemind. It creates random evolutions in those it hits.Taking too many strikes will change someone into a Spawn of Chaos. The architects abandoned it after a subject “gave birth to themselves”. It can be destroyed in the Null Forge by sacrificing a being that was reshaped by it, or by performing the Ritual of Stasis involving a mythic spellcaster and a person who’s form has never been altered.
Ishtar is visiting the Assembly of the Four Corners (Namas). He tells Thelessa about how he found out via commune that he is a reincarnated fire elemental lord. She is intrigued and gets Morvath for more consul. Khorzath is a fire lord that was reincarnated by Namas. They provide him with some literature on the subject. It is believed that Khorzath did something bad and was reincarnated by Namas as a second chance. It’s possible that Ishtar is that reincarnation.
Graynor and Sigmund visit Jarveth about the two items that we found on Virhilyth. He will see what he can do about recompense and if they can destroy the staff. He will also try to gather information on Tolm.
We go to Derth via several tree strides. We cannot see the monolith. Ty secures a room at the Gilded Reed. Apparently the monolith suddenly sank about 4 days ago, around the time that we took Luka out of the Oakfield monolith. Ishtar scouts it out via earth elemental and notices some cracks at the bottom of it.