Campaign Journal

Four strangers dreamed they were walking along a dirt road. Thick fog had set in, isolating the road in a sea of whirling gray.

Perhaps in conversation, perhaps through the secret knowledge of dreams, the travelers knew themselves to be Dormyra, an old tortle, Vimak, a sturdy goliath, Mira the Mountainous, a white-scaled dragonborn, and Cab Bage, an odd hermit.

Soon the dirt road turned to gravel, and the travelers were approached by two small figures, Rose and Thorn, siblings who looked malnourished and half-dead. They begged the travelers to help them rescue their baby brother, who their parents had taken down to a "monster" in the basement.

When Mira reached for the children, his hand passed through their spectral forms.

Within the manor, the travelers experienced strange visions and illusions: fresh food turned rotten before their eyes, stuffed wolves seemed to move at the corner of their vision, and idyllic paintings revealed disturbing details on closer inspection. Hanging on the wall was a portrait of the Durst family. Domyra found a corn-husk doll of a woman with a needle through her belly, hidden beneath a servant's mattress. Vimak found a ring with a windmill design (the sigil of the Durst family) in the ashes of a cold fireplace. Cab uncovered an iron key hidden in Gustav Durst's desk. Strangely, no basement door was found.

The travelers explored the first two floors, then climbed a red marble spiral staircase to the third floor, which was in far worse condition. Thick cobwebs concealed peeling wallpaper and creaking wooden floors. A set of armor, wolf-headed and covered in thick black iron, suddenly sprang to life, lunging through the cobwebs at Vimak!

The nightmare continued.

The animated armor continued to attack Vimak, striking in with its thick iron spiked gauntlets. Though Vimak struck back with many mighty blows, the armor's thick plating deflected most damage.

Suddenly, a drow named Val leapt from the shadows and buried a shortsword between the armor's should pauldron and back plate. Vimak took the opportunity to open a huge gash in the armor's side. Cab's bursts of divine black fire, and Domyra's dissonant whispers proved too much for the armor, which collapsed in a heap of rust.

Cab opened a door to a balcony, and discovered that the swirling mists had closed in on the manor. Vimak, stepping outside, felt his soul being drained by the pernicious fog. The goliath continued to step into danger when, upon opening a closet, he was attacked by a warped and wicked animated broom.

Yet another door opened to an old nursery. The ghost a nursemaid cried in the corner, her back turned to the travelers. The group approached cautiously. When Val mentioned a child, the nursemaid suddenly turned, warping into a terrible specter and attacking the group. They fought back with weapons and spells.

Val dashed into an adjacent room and found an old crib covered in a black shawl. He threw the crib out into the nursery, where the nursemaid, crying "My child! My child!" was distracted by the empty rags within.

Though this bought the group more time, their attacks against the specter were not enough. With a horrendous wail, the specter plunged her claws into Cab's chest and drained the life from him.

Despite their fallen companion, the group pressed the attack and defeated the specter.

Climbing up a final set of stairs, the travelers came to the attic of the Durst Manor. Cab, returned but a little mad from dying in the dream, used his iron key to unlock a door to the Durst children's room. Inside, they found the ghosts of Rose and Thorn, who asked the characters to help put their bones to rest in their tombs. The ghostly children showed the group a model of their home, which revealed a secret stairway from the attic to the basement.

Vimak picked up the bones of the children, and all together they stepped into the secret stairwell.

The Durst basement opened into a series of twisting earthen tunnels. Distant chanting echoed throughout, unceasing.

The group discovered the abandoned sleeping quarters of servants, and started picking and breaking the locks on some old wooden chests. The activity attracted a hungry grick, which started attacking Vimak with its long, barbed tentacles. Vimak buried his ax in the grick's tough side, and Domyra unleashed psychically powerful words, and the grick crawled away across the ceiling.

Within the wooden chests, the group found items tied to memories of their past.

The characters returned to the tombs, finding empty stone coffins for all five members of the Durst family: Rose and Thorn, Gustav and Elizabeth, and even the baby Walter. As the group explored, the wall behind Elizabeth's tomb burst open, releasing a wave of insects that bit and stung anything in their path. Cab eventually eliminated the bugs with a well-aimed burst of divine fire.

Then, the grick returned from the shadows, attempting to grab Domyra. Her thick shell protected her from the barbs. The grick once again fled into the darkness, and the group pursued. Domyra, readying a thunderous spell, suddenly fell into a pit trap. Though the grick was ready to pounce down and feast, Vimak's entrance from around the corner scared it back into the shadows, and it slithered away.

Domyra was helped from the pit, and everyone retreated upstairs to rest.

Returning downstairs, Cab led his companions further into the catacombs, finding new tunnels with earthen floors. Suddenly four ghouls crawled up from underground and began clawing at the cleric. Domyra heroically leapt in the way, releasing a blast of thunder! Unfortunately, the ghouls turned on Domyra, paralyzing her as and tearing at her exposed arms and face.

Vimak grabbed his two companions and dragged them back towards the stairwell. Cab called upon his divine power to turn the ghouls, and one fled back into the dark. The others pursued. As Vimak and Cab ran upstairs, the three remaining ghouls surrounded and feasted on Domyra's corpse.

Upstairs, the two explorers once again rested, Vimak bandaging his wounds and Cab meditating. Suddenly Domyra was before them, the memory of her death weakened.

The Durst Manor was not done with the travelers yet.

The travelers rested as well as they could in the attic upstairs.

Suddenly, two of the ghouls burst through the door. In a tense combat, the adventurers struck down their foes.

The travelers returned to the basement, dispatching the two other ghouls who waited in hiding. They then set to exploring this subterranean labyrinth.

In a larger chamber, the characters found a wooden statue of Queen Nostraya. Omyra recognized the vampire queen. Each character saw a strange vision in the orb that the statue held.

Domyra picked up the orb, which started glowing with a sickening green light. The characters' shadows came to life and started attacking them. Domyra threw the orb to the ground, and it shattered, destroying the magical shadows.

In another twisting hallway, Cabbage reached for a door which suddenly grew teeth and tendrils and revealed itself to be a mimic! Cabbage was nearly devoured, but the mimic fled into the shadows. When the characters started exploring the next room, the mimic stopped being a chair and tried to pursue Cabbage and Domyra. But it was caught in a hallway and quickly chopped in two by Vimak.

The characters found an old bedroom, the bed rotted and oil paintings on the wall coated in grime. Opening a wooden chest, Mira the Mountainous found a number of items, including a magic cloak. But as soon as she reached for them, two ghasts burst from hidden chambers behind the paintings- Elizabeth and Gustav Durst!

The ghasts, once Gustav and Elizabeth Durst, attacked the characters, seemingly trying to protect their treasures. As Vimak and Cab defended themselves, Domyra magically disguised herself as Rose Durst. This enraged Gustav, who saw through the illusion, but convinced Elizabeth to defend her daughter. Vimak quickly cut down Gustav.

Domyra, still disguised as Rose, asked her "mother" to lead her to their master. Elizabeth seemed eager to drag Rose away, and was puzzled when she could not pull Domyra's 500-pound shell. However, the group considered following Elizabeth too risky, and Vimak, Cab, and Domyra took her down in a flurry of weapons and magic.

In the Durst's chest, the characters found many treasures, including a feathered Cloak of Protection that Cab recognized from one of his former fallen companions.

The characters descended the stairs towards the ever-present chanting. They found a room with niches where strange, but worthless items of worship had been placed. In an earthen prison they found the skeleton of a cultist, as well as a secret door. The doorway led to a flooded chamber at the center of which stood an altar, with baby Walter tied up in chains above.

As the characters stepped into the chamber, thirteen hooded specters, chanting, "The child is not sacrifice enough. She has rejected our offer! ONE MUST DIE. ONE MUST DIE."

Vimak took down the baby and the characters tried to flee the room. The hooded specters called for "Lorgoth the Devourer" to appear. A pile of refuse and vines in an alcove nearby stirred and revealed itself to be a shambling mound composed of rotting roots, trash, and corpses. The mound proved itself to be a powerful foe. It absorbed Vimak into its body and started striking at Cab with its tendrils, but was blocked by a stone platform.

Suddenly Domyra approached the altar and offered her soul to the spectral forms. Their torches glowed, and Domyra's soul was absorbed into the hollows of their hoods.

Domyra collapsed. Cab attempted to heal her wounds, but realized it was too late. He cried over her pale, still body.

Vimak picked up baby Walter, and together he and Cab exited the Durst Manor. The mist had lifted, and one by one the characters woke up from their nightmare.

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A year had passed since the nightmare in the Durst Manor. Something was drawing each character to the Valley of the Fallen Stars in the Wolf's Head.

On a barge floating down the Gray Mare River, the characters wound up sitting at the same table and started remembering their shared nightmare. They all disembarked at Rothvel, a small barony set between the river and the woods.

At the dock, the characters met Trout, a young fisherman who would soon be competing in the Harvest Tourney. When asked about a blue gem broach, he told the characters that he had pulled it up from Gray Mare Lake with the advice of the tortle fortune-teller Madam Zolenka.

It was a dark, misty night, and wolves howled in the distance. The characters went to a large tavern called the Marksman. Inside, they met:

• • Yoseph, the tavern keeper

  • Mina, the chef, and their adopted baby Rotvei, found in the ruins of the old Durst Manor

  • Keppel, a troublesome tortle youth who will be competing in the Harvest Tourney

  • Tohva, the captain of the Rotvhel guards

Vimak signed up for the Harvest Tourney and Wild Hunt, and Domyra ordered some fine food.

Vimak was startled to find out his friend Dawnbreaker had been in Rothvel ten years ago and had signed up for the Harvest Tourney then. However, during the Wild Hunt, she challenged Baron Rothvel to a fight and was killed. Her body was dragged out to the Rothwood.

The characters found out that Father Wolfgang, Cab's former mentor, had come down to Rothvel about a month ago. He had struck up a friendship with Madam Zolenka. Today during the Great Bounty, wolves surrounded Wolfgang and Zolenka. They were the Nachthund, Hounds of the Night, magic wolves who follow the orders of the Wolf King. The Nachthund, taking on the form of humans, accused Father Wolfgang and Madam Zolenka of conspiring against Queen Nostraya. They were attacked; Wolfgang was dragged off to the dungeon below Ardent Hold, and Zolenka was left bleeding in the woods.

The characters set out for the Rothwood. They found Madam Zolenka near some stones where she had carved ancient tortle runes. Through her touch, the stones glowed and created a protective aura. Zolenka was grievously injured, and near the end of her power.

Hidden in the shadows, kept at bay by Zolenka's magic, was the Wolf King, a massive black wolf with a skull-like white pattern on his face and a glowing blue flame crown. With him were two Nachthund in wolf form, and one in the form of an archer.

Zolenka dropped her protective aura, and the wolves charged in! The Wolf King attempted to trap the characters with illusions. Cab roasted one wolf in black radiant flames. Another wolf fell asleep under Domyra's enchantment, then executed by Vimak's greataxe. The wolf archer shot Vimak with a poisoned arrow.

Vimak gave Zolenka a healing potion, and together the characters, with their elder ward, ran off into the Rothwood.

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The characters fled into the Rothwood. Madam Zolenka told them that her house in Mizzel was charmed against the Nachthund and the Wolf King; it was the only place they would be safe.

The characters came upon a small hunting lodge where four Nachthund and two Wolf Archers were in combat with a tiefling. Together, the group defeated the Hounds of the Night. The tiefling introduced herself as Moira. She had come to Rothvel a week ago, following the commands of her divine patron, and had gotten to know Madam Zolenka.

The group continued to travel through the woods, doing their best to be stealthy. Ahead, the paths split, and from the shadows appeared a Wolf Archer and a massive Dire Wolf. As the characters fought, they discovered pit traps dug into the ground, one of which Cab fell into. Though they put up a good fight, the archer and Dire Wolf were soon cut down.

Exhausted, the characters set up some simple traps, and rested for an hour.

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Setting again into the Rothwood, the characters came stealthily to the edge of a clearing. Within, they saw the Wolf King waiting. Rather than face this fearsome foe, they decided to risk passing through town.

In the village square in front of Ardent Hold, the characters found mobs of townsfolk entranced by the howling of the Nachthund. The group quickly slew the two wolves, but the villagers were still enthralled and started attacking the adventurers with tools and stones. Domyra played a wakeful song on her shawm, Cab started slapping villagers, and Vimak blew loudly into his horn. Together, they woke most of the villagers, who helped wake the others.

The villagers told the characters that the last thing they remembered was the howling of the Nachthund. They had heard legends of the Wolf King growing up, and were terrified to have been entranced by the wolf's howls. One of the villagers, an old man with a scraggly white beard and a squint, mistook Vimak for Dawnbreaker. He agreed to tell Vimak more the next morning at Trout's home on the docks.

At the bridge leading to Mizzel, the characters were stopped by Keppel, also under the sway of the Nachthund. He threatened to keep them from crossing the bridge, and then when attacked returned the the attack in full force. A dire wolf stepped out from beneath the bridge and started chasing after the invisible Moira.

Domyra tried to convince the town guards that these Nachthund did not work for Queen Nostraya. Captain Tohva was not totally swayed, but allowed Madam Zolenka to take shelter in the guard tower.

The dire wolf joined Keppel in battling Vimak and Cab. The huge wolf pulled Cab to the ground, then Keppel struck him in the head with his morningstar, knocking him out.

Moira used her Healing Light to awaken Cab, and then struck the dire wolf in the jaw with a mighty Eldritch Blast. Cab rose to his feet and killed the dire wolf with his wounding magic.

Vimak struck a mighty blow at Keppel. Domyra cast a frightful spell that caused Keppel to run, bleeding heavily from cuts to his arms and legs.

Keppel, still under thrall of the wolves, returned to his post at the bridge, and was shot down by Vimak's heavy crossbow.

Madam Zolenka was saddened by Keppel's death, recalling when she helped hatch the tortle. Though angry at Vimak, she said that the stars still wanted her to tell their fortunes.

At Mizzle, the characters found the Wolf King waiting for them, along with a Wolf Archer and a Wolf Witch. The Wolf King announced that he would let the characters go if they gave him the fortune-teller. Zolenka, on the other hand, said they needed to run to her hovel as quickly as possible.

As Moira traded magic attacks with the wolf witch, Domyra stepped up and told a powerful lie, making the Wolf King think that he did not have to follow Queen Nostraya's plans. He asked for a fortune from Zolenka, who lied and said he would be king of the Valley of the Fallen Stars one day.

The characters, except for the invisible Moira, escaped into Madam Zolenka's hovel, which was full of trinkets and studies both scientific and arcane. She found her Tarokka cards, then stepped back out to give the Wolf King a reading. She lied the entire time, telling the Wolf King to find a number of nonsense items. Though a difficult task, she successfully tricked the Wolf King.

As the Wolf King stepped away, Moira overheard him telling his children that long before Queen Nostraya, he was king of this valley, and some day would be again.

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In Madam Zolenka's hovel, the characters received fortunes answering their most pressing questions.

Domyra asked if the stars would ever shine bright on the valley again.

Zolenka answered that she saw something tethered to Queen Nostraya; only once this tether was cut would the clouds clear and the stars shine again.

Cab asked how Nostraya could be killed.

Zolenka received a vision of falling stars, and weapons and items made from their metals and gems, and said these objects of old could slay the Devil Queen.

Vimak asked where the remains of Dawnbreaker were.

Zolenka told him that Dawnbreaker's body was at Grayview Abbey, a fortress in the mountains. Cab mentioned that he had seen Dawnbreaker alive only a few years ago, though Zolenka's vision saw her dead.

Finally, Moira asked if her devilish nature would keep her group safe or put them in danger.

Zolenka answered that Moira's former master had influence in the Valley, but that Moira was the only one who could keep her friends safe.

Madam Zolenka was stunned that these visions had come so clearly to her. She saw it as more of a sign that the characters had been brought by the stars to the Valley. She told the characters she would use the tarokka cards to do a reading and see if she could divine their fate.

Zolenka turned over the Butcher Star Card, representing a place where "blood flows as wine." Domyra and Cab turned over the Shield Sun Card, revealing that another pathway to Father Wolfgang was hidden "where friends gather, guarded from the night by strong walls and a roaring fire." Vimak and Moira turned over the Twins Moon Card, which carried the warning that two keys were needed to enter the secret passageway, one for entrance and one for safety.

Madam Zolenka, exhausted, fell asleep. The characters returned to the Marksman and passed the night.

In the morning, Moira treated Vimak to a bowl of soup, which he then gifted to Domyra.

Domyra talked with Tohva, Captain of the Guards. Tohva could do nothing to free Father Wolfgang, but she recommended Domyra talk with Chamberlain Durst.

Moira asked Yoseph the bartender about any secrets of the town. He revealed that the whole town used to be a big keep, and there were still some ancient buildings and secret passageways. He showed the group a basement with an ancient stone door, carved with a pattern of falling stars and grasped gauntlets. The door required two keys; he traded Moira one key for five nights stay paid in advance, but told the characters that the other key was likely in another old building. Cab noticed that the key's handle was in the shape of a golden skull, the symbol of Arawan, his god of life and death.

Yoseph celebrated the deal with a nice bottle of wine from Grayview Abbey. He noted that he had to pay a hefty price to travel past the dragon that guards the abbey.

Domyra and Cab headed to the Black Candle, an old tower said to be haunted. Inside, they saw rubble and an old staircase, and Cab spotted a large eye on a stalk that then darted back into the rubble. They decided to wait for their friends.

Vimak and Moira talked with Quint and Trout at the docks. Quint told Vimak about Dawnbreaker's fate. She had come to Rothvel ten years ago, asking about someone called the Pale Fellow. She didn't find out much, but decided to sign up for the Harvest Tourney and Wild Hunt.

A few nights before the festivities, Dawnbreaker had dinner with Baron Rothvel and Chamberlain Durst. There was an altercation, and blood was drawn, but no one knows what was said.

Dawnbreaker easily bested everyone in ax throwing, and was second in Caber toss only to Trout's older brother. In the Wild Hunt, though everyone teamed up against Dawnbreaker, she beat them back and won, taking first place. A woman named Leona Flint took second, and Trout's older brother took third.

Dawnbreaker then challenged Baron Rothvel to combat.

Rothvel fought with a massive chained flail. The combat was intense, but eventually Baron Rothvel knocked Dawnbreaker's ax from her hands and killed her. The Ardent Hunters dragged Dawnbreaker's corpse into the Rothwood.

Old Squint told Vimak that first and second place winners in the Wild Hunt become Ardent Hunters, and live their lives in the Ardent Hunter's Lodge, hunting game and going on quests on behalf of Baron Rothvel. The third place winner goes into Ardent Hold and is never seen again.

Old Squint did not want to speak more about the Baron, but gave Vimak a dragon chess piece and told him to seek out Burdock Applewood, another old timer.

Vimak and Moira joined their companions at the tower. Vimak threw his grappling hook up to the second floor and they all climbed up.

On the second floor of the tower, the characters found a strange sight: a tree growing against the wall, with a small altar set inside it. The altar was carved with the images of fairies, pixies, and satyrs. A small dish held baby teeth, and three small wooden figures were set into alcoves: a woman and two little girls.

Domyra recognized the altar as an offering to Granny O'gwa, a hag who has for ages terrified the tortles of the Valley. Desperate tortles sometimes made deals with her, but always at a steep price.

In the room, the characters also found a few gems and three woodblocks that, once printed, showed three pictures. One showed knights with falling stars on their shields fighting a group of tortles lead by one large leader. The second showed the lead tortle being knighted by a bearded human knight. The third showed the tortle and human knights fighting a dragon.

On the roof, Domyra found a brazier filled with coal and logs, a woodpile, and some empty glass bottles. She knocked over the brazier and put out the fire, and started dropping the chopped wood off the tower.

Down below, she saw a finely dressed man with a white mustache and a staff of office approaching. He introduced himself as Chamberlain Basil Durst. He eventually convinced everyone to leave the tower, and answered questions about the town of Rothvel, spinning everything optimistically.

Domyra used her frightful magic to increase the Chamberlain's fear of Queen Nostraya, in order to free Father Wolfgang. While the Chamberlain could not free the priest, he agreed to turn Baron Rothvel's attention from the group so they could attempt to extricate their friend without notice. He urged them to appear at the Great Table tonight so that their presence would be noted.

Vimak led the characters to the Applewood Estate. On the way, they passed by some farmers who were bleeding their huge pigs and collecting the blood in barrels. They told the characters that the blood was for Baron Rothvel, who drank it to maintain his strength and health.

In the courtyard of the Applewood Estate, they found Audrey Applewood, a young woman, training with her swordmaster. A servant led the characters to a library, where Burdock Applewood studied a dragon chess set. His eyes lit up as they asked about the Baron.

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Burdock Applewood told a story of Baron Rothvel, using his dragonchess set as a prop.

Sir Ardent Rothvel had been part of an order of knights known as the Starsworn Knights. Their task was to protect the Valley of the Fallen Stars. Sir Rothvel wished to slay the dragon Orzamora. He put together a band of knights, and even recruited a group of Tortle fighters who had been former enemies known as the Snappers. The lead tortle was knighted and became known as Sir Mog the Mighty.

Together, the knights slew the dragon, but Sir Rothvel was grievously injured. He fell into a river, and would have been swept over a waterfall had Mog the Mighty not rescued him.

Mog brought Ardent Rothvel to a small tortle village on the bank of the Gray Mare River. There, the tortles nursed Ardent back to health. Ardent came to appreciate the area, and eventually built a keep there to protect the village. This became the village known as Rothvel.

The Dread came to the Valley of the Fallen Stars, and with it the Devil Queen Nostraya. The Starsworn Knights battled her, and failed, and Sir Ardent Rothvel was cursed. He and fled to Rothvel, and as a last act buried the body of Mog the Mighty in a tomb beneath the town.

The story done, the characters split up before the Great Table feast began.

Vimak sought out a fortune from Madam Zolenka, and found out the fates favored his odds in the Wild Hunt, but did not favor his chances in battle with Baron Rothvel.

Moira signed up for the archery competition in the Harvest Tourney.

Cab wandered around the town, and found the ruins of a manor. He was told the ruins were cursed, but decided to explore them anyways. While searching around, he encountered strangle, ghostly apparitions that resembled himself and Domyra. He attempted to combat them, but fled. Once he reached the edge of the ruins, the apparitions vanished into mist.

Night fell, and the characters were drawn to the Great Table. Feasting tables had been set up throughout Rothvel, but the most important people in town were gathered outside of Ardent Hold at a massive table. Ardent Hunters brought out gluttonous portions of roasted boar, birds, deer, and other creatures, and everyone around the table ate to excess. Baron Rothvel sat at the head of the table, but did not eat.

The characters saw that Baron Rothvel was a broad-shouldered, well-muscled man wearing layers of hide and leather and a bear-skin cape. He wore a half-helmet with a strip of metal over the eyes. He had a rusty red beard, and his skin beneath was pale and bloodless. When he smiled, he bore sharp teeth.

Chamberlain Durst called for all competing in the tourney or Wild Hunt to come and introduce themselves to the Baron. Vimak and Moira joined the line. For each competitor, Baron Rothvel breathed in their scent, then wished them luck.

Chamberlain Durst told the characters to seek out another table, and then distracted Baron Rothvel's guards.

The characters fled to the Marksman, and walked down to the basement. They used both keys on the stone door.

Inside, they found a long hallway that descended into the earth. The walls were carved with golden skulls, the symbol of the god of life and death, Arawan.

At the end of the hall was a second stone door. Opening it, the characters encountered a glowing tortle skull that welcomed them to the tomb of the Starsworn Knights. This skull belonged to an old tortle skeleton of Vort, a servant and storyteller of Mog the Mighty. He told them that Mog was slain by the Baron under the effects of the curse. When the Baron realized what he had done, he laid his friend to rest in this tomb. Vort used to visit it, and when he died he was set up as a kind of welcoming figure. However, soon after he "awoke" and has been down here for a long time.

The last visitor to come down was Thureta Rothvel, Baron Rothvel's wife. He and the Ardent Hunters dragged her down here for some reason. She went through a door, screamed, and ran back through. She prayed to Granny O'gwa, and suddenly roots and vines filled the dungeon and covered her body. She passed back through the door, and that was the last Vort had seen of her.

The characters started exploring the tomb. They fought the reanimated corpses of knights such as Lady Sabilene, Sir Ricard of the Water, and Lady Auberee the Vigilant. They found a magic ship's wheel carved with the name Cavalier.

Some rooms were overgrown with roots and vines. The characters picked a number of poison berries. In one room, a small tree growing bell-like fruit started ringing as soon as Vimak stepped near. A satyr and three pixies in the next room were alerted, and they started casting spells at the characters. One pixie caused vines to rise up and grasp at the characters' feet.

The satyr cried out, "Fresh meat for Mother Thereta! Shiny trinkets for our lady!"

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Despite an onslaught of spells from the pixies, the characters fought back! Moira cast a Shatter spell into the small chamber, which tore apart the pixies. Vimak and Domyra closed the distance on the satyr with the whip. With quick strikes from her rapier and a wild swipe with her claw, Domyra cut down the satyr. As it collapsed to the ground, it reverted back to a pile of wood, bark, and roots.

The characters investigated the tomb of Sir Wilmot of the Shield. Inside, they found a small keyhole. Domyra used the silver key recovered from Lady Auberee the Vigilant and opened a secret door.

Beyond a statue of Mog the Mighty, the characters found a room where five undead knights had been dissolved in a massive rusty puddle. The music of pan pipes echoed from a stairway. While investigating the puddle, Domyra was attacked by an ochre jelly. It struck out at her, burning her with acid, and lashed out at Moira as well. Though the characters lobbed spells at it, it survived, and soon knocked Moira out. Vimak dragged Moira away, and the ochre jelly crawled out the door, escaping the characters.

Vimak dragged a stone coffin over the stairway, and the characters rested.

Down the stairs, the characters found a series of chambers with dirt floors and high ceilings. Inside grew roots, vines, and trees. Thureta Rothvel had transformed into a dryad, and sent her pixies and satyrs after the characters.

Immediately, Vimak was struck with a Confusion spell, and struck at Domyra, and Moira was polymorphed into a rabbit. However, the characters soon turned the tide. Domyra cast Thunderwave, which killed many of the pixies. Vimak started battling the satyrs, taking on two at the same time. Moira freed herself from illusory vines and started sending Eldritch Blasts into the fray.

Soon, the characters had dispatched most of the fairy creatures. Domyra enraged Thureta by calling her a bad mother, and the dryad, covered in thick barkskin and wielding a magic shillelagh, stepped out from a tree to battle the tortle. However, Domyra struck back with her whispering blade. One of the surviving pixies put both Domyra and Thureta to sleep, and the final satyr stepped up to Thureta to protect and wake her.

However, Vimak sidestepped the satyr and delivered a fatal blow to Thureta, whose barkskin opened to reveal the withered corpse of an old woman. The satyr collapsed to the ground as so much wood, and the leaves started dropping off the trees.

Looking around the room, Vimak found some treasure collected by Thureta's children. Moira discovered that thick vines and roots covered a doorway. She cleared a gap and through it saw the tomb of Mog the Mighty.

Before investigating further, the characters decided to rest. They spent the night in the tomb, sharpening weapons, meditating, and talking with the trees. The light of the magic leaves faded, leaving them in total darkness.

When some time had passed, Vimak lit his lantern, and Moira cast Light on her sickle. They hacked away at the now dried, dead roots and cleared the doorway.

The walls of the room were carved into four panels showing Mog's life. In one panel, he lead a group of Tortles known as Snappers against the Starsworn Knights. In a second panel, he was being knighted by Sir Ardent Rothvel. In a third panel, he, Rothvel, and other knights fought the dragon Orzamora. And a fourth panel showed his death at the hands of Baron Rothvel, who cried over the friend he had just killed.

When Vimak touched the tortle's tomb, the ground began to shake. Suddenly, the soil erupted, and the nine-foot-tall corpse of Sir Mog the Mighty stood up from beneath the tomb. Turning his empty sockets to Vimak, he intoned in a gravel voice:

“Warriors! Prove thyselves worthy of my mighty blade!”

Mog the Mighty reached down with a single claw and picked up the stone lid of the tomb. Inside was a gleaming greatsword.

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The mighty skeleton of Sir Mog stood from his grave and commanded, "Warriors! Prove thyselves worthy of my mighty blade!"

The Domyra blocked the doorway with her shell, telling Sir Mog the Mighty that they sought to destroy the villains who had killed him. Mog replied that they needed to prove themselves worthy of vengeance.

Vimak took the invitation and started chopping at the giant with his axe. Moira ran in, grabbed Mog's greatsword, and darted back out of the room. The two clay urns in the room shattered, revealing tortle zombies.

As Sir Mog swung the stone lid of his coffin, the characters retaliated with axe, eldritch blast, sacred flames, and rapier. Vimak chopped the legs off one zombie, and Domyra continued to block the door. Unfortunately, one zombie managed to roll her shell out of the way, and Mog burst through the door.

The undead continued to pursue Moira and the greatsword. Vimak killed the legless zombie. Domyra continued to score at the bones with her rapier. Moira hexed the remaining zombie, and blasted at it with her eldritch bolts.

Finally, Cab summoned a mighty inflict wounds spell, creating a vortex of black energy that crushed Mog's skeletal frame into bone powder.

Domyra used her thieve's tools to unlock the gate and the characters followed the long earthen hallway. Eventually it ended it stairs and a locked door. With Moira's help, Domyra unlocked this door as well, revealing the dungeon of Ardent Hold.

Within, the characters saw caged prisoners, bloodstained torture devices, a deep pit full of rot grubs, and Gorrum the Master Torturer with his undead topi minions. Gorrum was quickly struck down by an eldritch blast by Moira, followed by Domyra's rapier. The topi started hurling exploding poisonous snakes at the characters, but one by one they too were cut down.

Unlocking the doors, the characters freed Birrik, a bone-faced tiefling. He recognized Moira from their old "crew" in Glass Gardens. When Moira revealed she had turned against her former master Obsidikis, Birrik became nervous and obviously wanted to escape. However, the group pressured him into staying with them and fighting by their side.

Cab unlocked the door of his mentor Father Wolfgang. As the door unlocked, the prophesy of Madame Zolenka's Tarokka cards came true, and the characters were imbued with the blessing of the Butcher constellation, gaining their 4th Level.

Cab cured Father Wolfgang's poison, and the characters freed two more prisoners: a man named Vollen Dobbs who had been caught stealing from Ardent Hold by an undead guard, and Sera Picklewit who had tried to make a deal with Granny O'Gwa to curse the wealthy Applewood family.

All the while, screams echoed from a closed door at the top of the stairs. Father Wolfgang told the characters of his vision: a blade of pure crystal glowing with a light that cleared the ever-present clouds from the sky. He thought the characters were the light to clear the curse, and that the stars were guiding their path. He then urged the characters to rescue whoever was being tortured behind the door.

29 Gray Mouse 1310

Behind the door, the characters found a grizzly sight: a vampire spawn named Lady Dagra draining blood on a specialized table from a screaming dwarf.

Domyra at first tricked the vampire spawn into believing they were delivering the tiefling Birrik to have his blood drawn. Lady Dagra quickly started subduing him with her bite and claws. Birrik tried to escape, grabbing at some keys on the door, but the keyring sprouted wings and started flying around the room.

After Father Wolfgang healed Birrik, Cab decided to attack the vampire spawn. Soon the group was on the offensive. Vimak caught the keyring and started freeing the imprisoned dwarf. Domyra blinded the vampire spawn, and Cab and Moira rained down sacred flames of radiance. Soon, Vimak and Birrik freed the dwarf, who called himself Udgar Vance. He retrieved his magic greyfire sword from a chest and plunged it into the back of the vampire spawn.

After another round of barrages, Lady Dagra was cut down, crying out that her soul would be welcomed by the "Pale Fellow."

Udgar Vance revealed himself to be a Gray Warden, one of the knights of Grayview Abbey. He had been hunting vampires in a place called Fallen Sisters when he was kidnapped by the Ardent Hunters and brought to Baron Rothvel's dungeon to be bled. Though Udgar wanted to immediately fight Baron Rothvel, he was convinced by Domyra and Father Wolfgang to save the fight for another day.

The characters led the freed prisoners back through the Starsworn Tomb and out the basement of the Marksman.

Vimak spent some time identifying Sir Mog the Mighty's greatsword. It was revealed to be a dancing sword called Wyvern Steel.

Soon the characters joined great crowds gathered outside Ardent Hold to witness the Harvest Tourney.

Moira and Domyra competed in the Archery Tournament. Through their keen senses and practice with the bow, the two did well, Moira winning first place (and 300 gold pieces), and Domyra winning 25 gold pieces in third place.

As the targets were cleared from the arena, Chamberlain Durst called out for the Axe Throwing Competitors to appear. Vimak stepped into the ring.

29 - 30 Gray Mouse 1310

The Harvest Tourney continued!

Vimak faced difficult competition in Axe Throwing and Caber Toss, though he scored third and first in each. Nela Swinebum, a local pig-wrestler, won first in the Axe Throwing contest, and Trout won first in tilting.

After, the characters returned to Moira's room to ask Udgar Vance about the goliath Dawnbreaker. Udgar told the characters that Dawnbreaker had, in fact, been killed by Udgar, but that he had given her the curse of vampirism. She awoke in the woods with a thirst for blood and the mindset of an animal. The Gray Wardens, knights and vampire hunters of Grayview Abbey found Dawnbreaker, and were able to use their magic to heal her soul. Though she still has the curse of vampirism, she is able to retain her own mind, and now helps train the Gray Warden fighters.

Udgar, after being forced to wash up a bit, followed the group to Mizzle, where they found Father Wolfgang and Cab sitting with tortles. The characters saw tortles dancing, eating cabbage, and secretly worshiping the stars.

Father Wolfgang told a story of the Luminaires, mythical figures who fought back darkness that once held claim over the valley. The Luminaires taught the tortles of the Valley to worship the stars, sun, and moon. There is a legend that one day the Luminaires will return to banish the darkness once again. Father Wolfgang believed that Cab, Vimak, Domyra and Moira were these destined figures.

In her hovel, Madame Zolenka performed a full Tarokka card reading. She told the characters about how an old friend of hers had these Tarokka cards made. They still held a connection to the stars, and could read the characters' destinies. Through the cards the characters chose, she foretold the following:

In a city whose walls keep safe murderers and thieves you will find a harrowing test and a great reward, though be warned: those give the test are dangerous in themselves.

Amongst a people whose past has been buried you must take part in a ritual of power; though, woe upon us, the steps of the ritual have been lost to time.

In twisting halls beneath a throne, wherein wanders a pale prisoner, there lies a key that unlocks the Devil Queen's greatest secret; though take heed: those who seek its power risk a terrible curse.

Madame Zolenka was exhausted by this reading, and said she could not find such a connection to the stars again until a month passed.

Vimak and Moira helped Zolenka to the fire outside. There, Udgar Vance encouraged Vimak to challenge Baron Rothvel to a fight during the Wild Hunt. Together, they formed a plan in which the other characters would hide out among the audience, and surround the Baron when the fight began. Vimak decided to challenge Rothvel before the Wild Hunt, in order to maximize his own health and strength.

The next day was damp and chill, with a low fog rising from the ground like steam. Before the Wild Hunt began, Moira wandered down to the docks. There she found Trout readying his armor and weapons for the melee. They talked about his older brother, who had won 3rd Place in the tournament 10 years ago and had vanished after his dinner with Baron Rothvel.

Vimak went to the Marksman and bought stewed pears in barleywine from the chef Mina.

Domyra made her way back to the library at the Applewood Estate. With Burdock Applewood's help, she found some books on Granny O'gwa. She learned that before the tortles, the entire Valley was part of the Feywild, and that faerie creatures like Granny O'gwa had much power. The Feywild faded from most of the valley, but Granny O'gwa remained, kidnapping children and tricking adults into cursed deals.

Soon the characters heard the horns warning that the Wild Hunt would begin soon. Udgar Vance, Father Wolfgang, Cab, Domyra, and Moira took seats in the stands. Vimak stood with the other fighters, including Trout and Audrey Applewood, in the ring.

Chamberlain Durst came down from his seat next to Baron Rothvel and gave a speech about the tradition of the Wild Hunt and an appreciation for the Baron. However, the speech was interrupted by Vimak, who challenged the Baron to combat, calling out Rothvel's slaying of his friends and his wife.

The Baron held back his captains of the guard and the Ardent Hunters and sent Chamberlain Durst for his flail.

Vimak, entering a rage, shot Baron Rothvel with his heavy crossbow. Udgar ran from the benches, his greyfire sword and patchwork shield in hand. Moira sent a sacred flame out from behind a boulder. Domyra whispered terrifying words towards the Baron, who screamed, ran back towards his hold, and took off his helmet.

The Baron's flesh was pasty and even paler beneath the half-helm. His hair was matted and filthy. His eyes, deep set, yellowed, glowing red, struck terror in all who saw them. Their gaze, full of pain and hatred and suffering, seemed to gnaw away at the characters' souls. Father Wolfgang immediately collapsed after meeting the Baron's sight, and across the stands townsfolk fell to the ground.

The Baron raised his flail above his head and charged Vimak.

30 Gray Mouse 1310

The fight with Baron Rothvel continued.

Vimak unleashed Wyvern Steel, and the blade magically took to the air and started chopping at the Baron. Rothvel was shocked to see the weapon of his dear friend Mog the Mighty. Udgar Vance joined the fray, averting his eyes yet slicing at his foe with his grayfire sword. Moira and Domyra launched spells at the Baron. Moira struck with a powerful Eldritch Blast, and Domyra used Dissonant Whispers to drive maddening thoughts into the Baron's mind.

Suddenly Leona Flynt, captain of the Ardent Hunters, leapt to the defense of her baron. She launched a volley of arrows at Domyra, who survived thanks to Cab's healing magic.

The Baron struck back, draining Moira's life energy with his death gaze, then biting Vimak's neck and healing himself through a deep drink of blood.

But the adventurers overcame their foe. Domyra cast a final devastating Dissonant Whispers spell, that drove the baron to back away, leaving himself open to a series of devastating attacks from Udgar Vance, Vimak, and Trout. Baron Rothvel met Domyra's gaze for a final time before crumbling to the psychic onslaught.

Leona Flynt commanded Tohva, Captain of the Guard, to bring Rothvel's body to his resting place in Ardent Hold. However, Tohva was held back by the Wyvern Steel, and surrendered. Leona Flynt ran away, vowing eternal loyalty to Baron Rothvel.

The characters had a few brief breaths after the fight, during which Vimak cut off the Baron's head and Udgar Vance drove a wooden stake through his heart.

But the mists continued to thicken, and soon the battleground was isolated in a sea of fog. From the gloom suddenly appeared Queen Nostraya, with the shadow reflections of Domyra and Cab in tow.

Queen Nostraya claimed surprise at the defeat of Baron Rothvel, stating that one of her knights had not been slayed in over a hundred years. She assumed that the characters would next be after her, a proposition she found entertaining.

Domyra stepped forward and told Queen Nostraya how foolish it was to allow the Moonstone, a large fallen star, to still be lying around. Nostraya invited Domyra, and the other adventurers, to come down to the Ember Keep where she had an even larger fallen star.

Queen Nostraya suddenly put Udgar Vance under a magical charm, and the dwarf started walking towards her. Moira and Vimak grappled Udgar, and the shades of Domyra and Cab started attacking. Swarms of bats flew down from the fog and attacked the characters.

Vimak dragged Udgar Vance away from the Devil Queen. Domyra retreated from her shade double, who seemed filled with anger at having been sacrificed in the basement of the Durst Manor. Moira raised an illusory wall of fire to protect Domyra, but received a blast of grave bolts from the shadow Cab's shield.

Soon Trout fell to Queen Nostraya's charm. They linked hands, but Captain Tohva ran up and tried to drag Trout away. Queen Nostraya grabbed Tohva and started sucking blood from her throat.

Domyra used a Disguise Self spell to take on the form of Queen Nostraya, confusing her evil double. Rather than pursuing Domyra, the shade returned to her true Queen and helped kill Tohva. Queen Nostraya transformed Trout into a bat, then vanished into the mist. The shade doubles of Cab and Domyra followed.

Slowly the fog lifted. Moira and Cab burned Baron Rothvel's body with their sacred flames. Domyra said a tortle prayer over the body of Captain Tohva before allowing her corpse to be burned.

Yoseph arrived with other villagers, and they gathered the many corpses for a great funeral. Moira and Cab helped the proceedings, while Vimak and Domyra searched out Chamberlain Durst. Vimak intimidated the Chamberlain into keeping the peace without allowing in outside forces. Domyra, reminding Durst of the original inhabitants of the valley, convinced him to allow tortles into the main parts of Rothvel.

After the funerals, the group gathered back at the Marksman. Yoseph served free drinks and food, and asked about their plans.

Considering the prophesies of the Tarokka Cards and Madam Zolenka's visions, the characters decided to go first to Moonstone, then down to the Hagwood.

30 Gray Mouse - 13 Amber Ant 1310

The session began with a flashback to Cab's Tarokka Card reading. Cab pulled the Crone, the Icon, and the Wolf, which Madame Zolenka interpreted as such:

In a tower risen from deepest mire lies, secluded, a reliquary of worship lost; make haste, for it is in danger of being destroyed.

The characters spent two weeks in Rothvel.

Moira and Vimak exterminated the giant crab living in the desiccated tower known as the Black Candle. Moira turned the tower into a temple, and led religious ceremonies, earning three favors in town.

Vimak attracted fighters from near and far, and held pit fights in the square outside Ardent Hold. He won some fights, lost others, and withstood a lot of blows, earning 150 gold. Meanwhile, Yoseph ordered Vimak a set of half plate from Seabriar, with the beak of a slain grick as its pauldron.

Domyra asked Nela Swinebum, famed pig wrestler, to train her in shield fighting.

Cab worked with Father Wolfgang in the Black Candle Temple, providing healing, guidance, and herbal remedies for those in need.

At the end of the two weeks, the group reconvened at the docks. They met with Old Squint, who was cleaning up Trout's cabin in case the young man returned. The group bought a sailboat from Squint, and named it the Queensbane. Squint warned the characters to be cautious of the Driftwood Giant, a creature that had attacked Trout and only fled when the young fisherman threw his magic ring into the water.

The old man's warnings proved true. In the midst of their journey to Moonstone Island, the Queensbane was swarmed by hundreds of crustaceans. As the crabs and lobsters slid under the characters' feet, the Driftwood Giant appeared and bashed into the side of the ship. Domyra tumbled into the water.

The characters started attacking the swarms of slimy crabs, and Domyra made her way back onto the ship, blasting at the Driftwood Giant with a casting of Thunderwave. Unfortunately, the giant crustacean plucked Domyra from the ship and dragged her into the water, pulling at her limbs with its mighty claws.

Cab leapt into the water and healed Domyra. Vimak sent Wyvern Steel after the creature, but only knocked driftwood from its back. Domyra reached down to the claw around her leg and cast Inflict Wounds, injuring the beast. It sunk down into the murky water.

On board, the swarms of crustaceans started diving back into the lake. Vimak trapped one swarm beneath his axe, and the characters took their revenge. One by one the crabs and lobsters were chopped into pieces, until one crab remained. It leapt overboard just as Vimak sliced down with his greataxe.

The characters continued their journey to Moonstone Island. There they found another sailboat torn to pieces.

On shore, the characters met Goldberry, a storyteller for the Merry Lord Montblanc in Seabriar. He wore a silver collar around his neck, and identified the two corpses as his guards. He had been sent to the island to find treasure, artifacts, and stories to tell to his master.

The characters agreed to help Goldberry find treasure on the island. Suddenly they heard strange voices in the trees parroting their own speech. Out of the shadows floated four small strange creatures, round hovering heads with a single eye and a row of sharp teeth, and a crown of eyestalks glowing different colors.

One of the floating creatures focused its eyestalk at Goldberry, and he seemed dazed by its effect.

The creatures floated closer, their eyestalks flashing!

13 Amber Ant 1310

The four gazers surrounded the characters. Domyra put two to sleep, and one was quickly hewn in half by Vimak. Moira launched Eldritch Blasts and Cab unleashed Sacred Flames. Between the four characters, and Goldberry's help, the four gazers soon popped out of existence. Moira, thinking back over her experience with fiends, recognized that these gazers were not devils but aberrations, and specifically a kind of aberration that is born from thought.

After a brief recovery, the treasure hunt began!

The characters searched all over the island, tracing its circumference over varied terrain.

Near an abandoned hut, the characters found a bag of silver pieces, three Potions of Climbing, and a piece of a stone altar carved with the image and name of Warqueen Nostraya.

On a sandy shore, Cab found a large chest of silver pieces washed up beneath an old pier. When digging in the shifting sands, Domyra and Goldberry uncovered a hidden pit trap. Domyra was able to leap out of the way, but Goldberry fell and was poisoned by the spikes. Cab healed the tortle, and Moira cast Lesser Restoration to remove his poisoned condition. Within the pit, Cab found an onyx statue of a crowned raven. Goldberry identified it as the Kind Raven, a god the tortles once worshipped, and an emissary of the stars.

The characters moved on to a marshy slope of the island. Vimak found a magical oak focus infused with planar energy. Domyra found another altar fragment, carved with The Revered Oriandos, who Goldberry said was buried in Umber Dell. Cab found the shattered altar, hidden beneath the thick shrubs of the slope. Attached to the altar was a carving of Sir Mog the Mighty and another figure named Lady Vesper. Goldberry used his Mending magic to connect together the stone fragments they had found. One piece was still missing.

On the rock-strewn eastern shore, Cab uncovered a garnet hidden within a wrecked rowboat. Domyra investigated an old stone wall and found a geode with purple crystals carved into the shapes of twisting tentacles. Goldberry said it was a figure representing the Starspawn, terrible creatures that sometimes hid within the fallen stars called down by Tortle Skywatchers.

On the shrubby northern shore, Cab and Domyra found a pair of Boots of False Tracks, left by some past smuggler. Searching through the bushy slope, Moira and Cab came upon two more gazers. At the same time, two swarms of crustaceans crawled from the shallow lake waters.

One of the gazers led Vimak on a chase through the trees, pushing at him with its telekinetic beam. However, as it tried to escape across the water, the aberration was cut in two by Wyvern Steel. Back in the shrubs, Moira was surrounded by one swarm of crustaceans while the other tried to attack Domyra. However, Domyra pushed them back with a well-timed thunderwave blast, and the crabs instead decided to attack Cab.

Moira used Poison Spray to wither the crabs surrounding her, and Cab decimated his swarm with Inflict Wounds. The final gazer popped out of its hiding place to push Domyra into the water, but was then shot down by Vimak.

Vimak noticed that the gazers had come from a hollow in the shrubs, within which was a stone carved with Sir Ardent Rotvhel and Lord Montblanc. They had found the final altar fragment.

13 - 14 Amber Ant 1310

On their way back to the shattered altar, the characters searched in the crater surrounding the moonstone. In the stones and vines, they found only small animal bones and a fine ash. However, as Domyra and Vimak searched the surface of the Moonstone, they fell into a deep trance.

Domyra saw again the night her son was taken from her. The Ember Guard, soldiers from Queen Nostraya's Ember Keep, had raided her village of Umber Dell, burning homes and kidnapping children. Domyra was pinned by a heavy net, and her son was wrenched from her arms. He was given to a thin man with a large scar over his eyebrow.

Vimak had a vision of Dawnbreaker. She stood atop a mountain, in front of a stone fort with a tall spire. She gazed at a long, low building that surrounded the fort, and felt fear for what was within.

Moira, Cab, and Goldberry tried to wake their companions. After shaking, shouting, and pouring water on them, they realized that pain could stop the trance. Domyra was quickly woken with a single punch, but Vimak withstood a barrage of slaps, psychic blasts, and beatings with branches before Cab cast Protection from Evil to break the charm.

The characters gathered the stone pieces of the altar, and Goldberry cast Mending to piece it together. They saw a carving of the seven Starsworn Knights, including Warqueen Nostraya.

Goldberry informed the group that the history of the Valley states that the Starsworn Knights had built keeps and holds here before the Dread. During the Dread, Queen Nostraya arrived and corrupted the knights with her vampiric curse. However, this carving showed Warqueen Nostraya as a member of the Starsworn Knights.

As the characters wondered at this, they saw the altar filling magically with holy water. The characters were able to fill four bottles.

Suddenly, attracted by the magical altar, the Driftwood Giant attacked! At the same time, three gazers descended from the island slopes.

The gazers unleashed blasts of magic eye beams, but Domyra was able to put two of them to sleep. Vimak and Cab engaged the Driftwood Giant. Its driftwood armor protected it from most attacks, and soon it had Vimak in its claws, its poisonous tendrils attempting to paralyze him. However, Vimak resisted and with aide from Wyvern Steel struck back.

Cab attempted to cast Inflict Wounds on the Driftwood Giant, but the crustacean stunned his hands with its tentacles. While Moira hunted down the lone awake gazer, Domyra closed ranks on the Driftwood Giant and stabbed at it with her rapier.

The Driftwood Giant tried to grab Wyvern Steel from the air, then pinched at Moira with its mighty claws. However, a final executioner's swing from Vimak slayed the mighty crustacean. Domyra tore off its claws as the other characters hunted down the remaining gazers.

The characters made camp outside the abandoned hut. As Goldberry told stories of the valley, Cab cast Zone of Truth and the tortle was asked a series of questions. They learned that Goldberry's magic collar prevented him from speaking negatively of his vampiric masters. They also learned that the Merry Lord Montblanc was a man of large appetites, and an eye for quality.

In the morning, the characters sailed aboard the Queensbane towards the town of Ottswald. On the way, the characters encountered an old woman picking in the mud. She had a humanoid body but a salamander head. She called herself Sister Salamander, and begged for charity. All but Domyra gave her some silver, and Goldberry gave her an expensive game.

In Ottswald, Goldberry bought them a round of Persimmon Cider, and they learned about the history of the town.

Decades ago, a beautiful woman came to town and demanded a songwriting contest praising her beauty. When a handsome young man won, the beautiful woman revealed herself to be Queen Nostraya and rewarded him by turning him into a vampire. He now rules over the town from Slough Manor.

They also learned that three golden catfish swam in a pond behind the Blue Otter Pub & Boatworks. A few years ago, Elvir, son of the pub owner Davian, had fallen asleep while guarding the fish, and one had gone missing. Then a few nights ago, Davian and his older son Adrian had fallen into a trance when they heard wolves howling, and the second fish went missing. As each fish vanished, some of the crops wilted- first the barley, now the hickory.

Davian told the characters that he would give them pick of the boats in the boatworks if they returned a golden fish. When they interrogated Elvir, they found out it was none but Granny O'gwa who had snatched a fish and flown away in her giant skull.

14 - 15 Amber Ant 1310

The characters asked Ervil a few more questions about Ottswald. They found out that the Weeping Widow Mill was inhabited at nights by the ghost of a crying woman, and that when Ember Guards had entered the building they had come out white-haired and prematurely aged. Though Moira wanted to investigate, the group decided to get back to their travels to the Hagwood. They said goodbye to Goldberry and set sail.

That night, around sunset, the characters saw a raft of Rothvel pigs caught in fallen trees in the river. Three strange humanoid creatures hunched in the tree branches over the raft, and the bodies of two pig farmers floated lifeless in the water. The characters would find out that these creatures are meazels, humans whose bodies and minds had been twisted and warped by the Shadowfell.

As Moira attempted to sail the Queensbane along another branch of the river, one of the meazels suddenly teleported through the shadows and attacked her. Vimak shot the meazel in the shoulder with his crossbow. Another meazel teleported behind Cab and wrapped a strong rope around his neck. This meazel teleported away with Cab to the bank of the river and started choking the life from him.

Moira, with help from Domyra, used necromantic magic to drain the life from the meazel on the Queensbane. A third meazel ran up to Cab, its shortsword brandished. Vimak and Moira leapt onto an island on the river and started pursuing Cab's attackers.

Cab healed himself, barely staying awake as the meazel continued to tighten the garrote around his neck. The other meazel stabbed him with the shortsword, which flowed with necromantic energies, and Cab collapsed. However, the blessing of the Butcher Star, earned when the characters fulfilled the prophesy of freeing Father Wolfgang, kept Cab alive.

Moira healed Cab, and Vimak closed in, barely missing the meazel with his axe. As the meazel laughed in celebration, Wyvern Steel swept in and lopped the meazel's head off.

The remaining meazel attempted to hide in the trees, but it was struck by Moira's eldritch blast, Vimak's flying sword, and Cab's inflict wounds, and it too collapsed.

The characters investigated the bodies in the water, and found them to be farmers from Rothvel, rafting towards Seabriar to sell their pigs. Vimak and Cab were able to pull two pigs aboard the Queensbane. Moira forged a bond with a friendly spotted pig she named Argyle.

The characters sailed the Queensbane further down the river, then made camp on the shore. They found a dead giant toad, about 8 feet in length, with eyes, mouth, and nose clotted in mud.

The morning brought a frigid and morose day with low black clouds.

Most of the day was spent sailing through the swamps into Ravenwood Court, a village at the edge of the Hagwood.

The Queensbane docked outside an inn called the Kettle & Caw. Minding the docks was a young woman named Betsi. She answered many questions about the town, then introduced the characters to Sehnovi, the owner of the Kettle & Caw. The inside of the tavern was a twisting maze of rooms, with dozens of crows and ravens cawing in the rafters. Sehnovi, a tall woman in fine clothing, wore a black feathered woven into her braided black hair.

Sehnovi knew the characters were coming to Ravenwood Court. She informed the characters that she belonged to an organization of people who bear the same black feather token. They share a desire to see the defeat of Queen Nostraya.

Sehnovi also told the characters that Granny O'gwa is an ally of neither her group, nor Queen Nostraya. She warned the characters to not make a deal with Granny O'gwa. However, if they sought out Captain Corvroc, captain of the Border Knights of Ravenwood Keep, they would find someone who could help.

As the afternoon darkened into evening, Vimak and Moira explored the town, and Cab started to train his pig, Vaccine.

Moira bartered some with a halfling merchant at the King Crow Market. She saw scented firewood that prevented random encounters in the Hagwood, healing potions, a lodestone compass, and two magic items: the Axe of the Ogre Knight, and the Stone of the Lucky Star. Unfortunately, the merchant had set steep prices for these items.

Vimak wandered into the Lone Souls Camp, and bumped into a hooded figure, who he recognized as Birrik. The tiefling tried to avoid giving away his purpose here, but Vimak quickly scared it out of him. Birrik had come to Ravenwood Court on behalf of his master, Lord Obsidikis. The devil lord wanted to make an alliance with Master Quorrian, master of the Ravenwood Court Manor. Birrik dragged behind him a large, heavy chest full that Vimak eyed greedily...

15 - 16 Amber Ant 1310

As evening set on Ravenwood Court, the characters continued to explore the village.

Domyra approached the yard of the Ardent Hunter's Tower, where she met a hunter and his lynx cleaning a dead grick. She found out that Commander Flint was sending her hunters out to prove their loyalty by hunting very dangerous creatures. These hunters had been sent to hunt an alpha grick in the Hagwood. When Domyra offered to kill the alpha grick, the hunter gave her five magic crossbow bolts.

Moira bought a lodestone from the King Crow Market, and then she and Cab walked to the Altar of the Hag Queen. It being a day of Queen's Offerings, villagers were placing offerings, such as dead animals, food, and toys, on the altar. A hag with an insect's head, named Sister Cicada, watched, and Moira gave her a fine wine from Grayveiw Abbey.

Vimak and Domyra then approached an old tortle who seemed in ill health. They found out he was Skywatcher Volno, and that he had been cursed by a swarm of bats sent by Queen Nostraya when he was leading a ceremony worshipping the Serpent of Four Winds. Later, Moira recognized the name as one of the titles of her patron. Skywatcher Volno, and other refugees, had come to the Ravenwood Court fleeing Queen Nostraya. On the edge of the Hagwood, the village was somewhat protected from the Devil Queen.

Night had fallen, and the group retired to the Kettle & Caw. There they talked with Sehnovi, who informed them that her group, called the Keepers of the Feather, had been in the valley since before the Dread. However, their numbers had fallen. The Kettle & Caw served as a haven. When the characters revealed their onyx statue of the Kind Raven, she traded some potions and a bottle of swampberry wine. They all then stayed up drinking swampberry wine into the night.

In the morning, the characters made their way to the gate of Ravenwood Court Manor. There, two silent tortle guards in hoods and leather beak-like masks barred their entry. Domyra said they had stories to tell Master Quorrian, and they were let through.

Ravenwood Court Manor was filled with many guests in fine regalia, including humans, tieflings, and fey creatures such as satyrs and pixies. The characters met Master Quorrian, ambassador of Queen Nostraya, and Sister Spider, emissary of Granny O'gwa. Domyra convinced Master Quorrian to save their story for lunch time, and tortle servants showed the group to their rooms.

Moira, poking around, discovered a hallway hidden behind a dresser. It led downstairs to a locked door. Domyra deftly picked the lock. Behind the door was a dungeon, with well-furnished cells. Men and women in frayed, fine clothing sat reading, writing, knitting, and such, emaciated and drained of blood. They revealed that they were all refugees from Queen Nostraya's wrath, and had made deals with Master Quorrian. They sat down here in the dungeon, their blood feeding the vampire master, while their loved ones were safe, well-fed, and entertained upstairs.

Continuing to explore, the characters met Blackbeak, trainer of the Border Knights. He revealed that children with a "shadowmark" are brought to Ravenwood Court to be trained as knights who can cross into and out of the Hagwood. The final step of their initiation involves giving their voices to Granny O'gwa. The Border Knights only speak a sign language version of Aquan, the tortle language.

Domyra also searched around a room filled with garbage. She found a pile of scrap paper, waiting to be burned. In the scraps she found, written by Master Quorrian's hand, the words, "My mistress still seeks the daughter of Marina."

Meanwhile, Cab requested a box of swamp cabbages.

Vimak and Moira both researched in the fine books shelved throughout the manor. Vimak read up on the history of the land, and discovered that the Keepers of the Feather had once been allied with Granny O'gwa. However, after the Dread, they switched alliances to Queen Nostraya, and event that preceded the Battle of Berez. Queen Nostraya and the Keepers of the Feather lost the battle, and the Hagwood remained in the domain of Granny O'gwa.

Moira found out that the graveyard surrounding the manor once had statues worshipping the Kind Raven. However, the ground was now desecrated.

Soon lunch was served, and the characters were ushered back to their audience. Before they told their story, Domyra demanded the reward of being guided to Granny O'gwa by Border Knights. Master Quorrian agreed.

The characters told the story of the Driftwood Giant, and some pigs in a river, with aplomb! With added effects by Moira's illusions, and the benefits of Domyra's Bardic Inspiration, the group exceeded the expectations of the Ravenwood Court Manor. Master Quorrian announced his Border Knights would lead the group through the Hagwood. Suddenly, Sister Spider stood and announced that her Dirge Guard, trained satyr knights, should lead the characters instead!

16 - 17 Amber Ant 1310

Master Quorrian and Sister Spider attempted to convince the characters to take their guards into the Hagwood. After a brief consultation, the group decided they would take both Master Quorrian's Border Knights and Sister Spider's Dirge Guard. The party would leave in the morning.

The rest of the evening passed pleasantly. Vimak convinced Master Quorrian to bring Birrik, their companion left out of the Manor, to their chambers. They told Birrik he could choose to come with them into the Hagwood or die.

Later, as the characters rested, Cab and Moira experienced terrible nightmares. Vimak, standing guard, was met by Master Quorrian. The vampire ambassador asked Vimak to find out what happened to the daughter of Marina, to whom a monument is built in Berez. As payment he gave Vimak a Horn of Silent Alarm.

Moira, during her turn at watch, was visited by Sister Spider. The emissary of the Hagwood urged Domyra to seek an alliance with Granny O'gwa. As an offering of friendship she gave Domyra a Ring of Swimming.

In the morning, both Moira and Cab had gained no benefit from their long rest, and had instead suffered loss to their maximum hit points.

The characters stepped outside into a blustery day of swirling clouds and scattered showers to meet their four guards. As they stepped through the ancient graveyard surrounding Ravenwood Court Manor, they attracted the attention of the reanimated spirit of Lady Klarania, a knight who served there before the Dread. She appeared as a terrible visage, half a female knight stitched onto the body of a horse.

Lady Klarania struck at the Border Knights with her pike, and attempted to frighten Moira with her glowing red eyes. However, Domyra cast Darkness on her pike, engulfing her in shadows. Vimak, Cab, and Domyra closed in, attempting to strike their enemy down. The undead knight, however, struck at Vimak and Cab with her hooves, greatly injuring the goliath and knocking the cleric unconscious.

Domyra pushed Lady Klarania away with a Thunderwave spell, then dropped the darkness. The two Border Knights, Sir Meer and Sir Mire, engulfed the undead knight in magical fire. Her body turned to ash, leaving only her helm and pike.

Shaken by this encounter, the characters retreated back to Ravenwood Court, where they were given a few healing potions. After an hour, they crossed the Graveyard and passed through the Fell Gate into the Hagwood.

The characters saw many strange things in their journey through the swamp. As they reached a cave opening, they encountered a giant toad and five swarms of insects. They quickly eliminated these creatures, the toad shot down by a swimming Domyra's magic crossbow bolt.

Birrik, meanwhile, had snuck around to the corpse of a halfing and a strange plaster hand. From inside the hand he found a few gems, which he attempted to hide away. Vimak forced him to share the wealth, and Moira recognized a symbol on the halfling's clothing, marking him as an agent of the King Crow Market in Ravenwood Court.

As the characters recovered from their battle, they realized the Border Knights wished to travel down the left tunnel, and the Dirge Guard down the right. Both sides said they would take the characters down the correct path.

The characters, after much deliberation, decided to follow the Border Knights.

They were led out of the caves, and somehow it was already night in the Hagwood. They passed over hills and by rivers and lakes, and found themselves at a wooden fort standing on stilts in the midst of where four rivers met. The fort was occupied by other Border Knights.

Sir Meer was asked by a Border Knight on the fort if they were traveling down the "narrow path" or the "wide path." Sir Meer replied he was taking them down the wide path.

As they crossed over the fort, Moira spotted a Border Knight holding a gleaming metal scythe. Though she spoke in admiration of the weapon, the Border Knight remained silent.

Strangely, the path led back to the same cave the characters had just passed through. However, the toad and corpse were gone. The Dirge Guard explained that in the Hagwood, the same place in two times could be two different places. The Border Knights revealed a secret tunnel hidden behind the waterfall, and the characters passed through.

This tunnel opened into a number of branching tunnels, marked by large holes in the ground. Four swarms of insects and two allosauruses seemed to be making a home here for the night. The allosauruses, smelling the characters, growled.

17 Amber Ant 1310

The group managed to hold their own against the allosaurs. The dinosaurs charged at the Dirge Guard, and the group struck back! Strangely, the allosaurs ignored the Border Knights, who only readied their spears but did not strike back.

Domyra proved the bane of these dinosaurs, striking out with psychic attacks and her sharp rapier. Soon both allosaurs were struck down, and Birrik, Vimak, and Cab fled down a tunnel. As Domyra investigated one of the holes in the ground, Moira witnessed Bronze Belle stabbed and killed by the Border Knights.

Domyra searched through the bedding of the allosaurs and found a young giant scorpion, injured but not dead. She placed the creature in her bag. Unfortunately, swarms of white centipedes had followed Domyra and Moira and the two were being sliced to pieces. Moira fell to one swarm, but Domyra managed to carry her to safety.

Further in the tunnel, Silver Sam and the Border Knights looked ready to kill each other, but Vimak intervened. He and Cab tried to ask what was going on, but intentions were unclear. When Domyra caught up, the Border Knights said that the Dirge Guard were planning on weakening the characters by leading them into danger, so that Granny O'gwa would have more power over them. Silver Sam accused the Border Knights of purposefully leading the characters towards the jaws of giant creatures.

The characters decided to continue following the Border Knights, especially when Silver Sam lied about the original mission of the Dirge Guard. Silver Sam ran off, though Domyra attempted to tackle and grapple him.

The Border Knights led the characters through a swamp of giants. Even the plants and animals seemed gargantuan-sized. They encountered the same stilt fort they had seen before, only now the planks and nails and bridges were gargantuan.

The characters followed the Border Knights between enormous cliffs. Suddenly two giant geckos, disguised against the cliffs, appeared! One crawled down the cliff face, bit Domyra, and swallowed her whole.

The characters focused their attack as the gecko tried to flee up the cliff. Cab cast Inflict Wounds, Vimak shot with his crossbow, and Moira launched Eldritch Blasts. Meanwhile, the Border Knights used mysterious bone whistles that made the geckos freeze in their tracks, then blasted fire at the second giant lizard until it ran away.

Moira and Cab drank Potions of Climbing and scaled the cliff, trying to catch up to the giant gecko. It crested the cliff top and started running away.

Down below, Vimak used his intimidating presence to force the Border Knights to help. Sir Mire blew a complex code on his whistle, drawing the giant gecko back to the edge of the cliff. The gecko spat out the body of Domyra and fled.

Cab immediately tried to heal Domyra, but discovered she was dead. Together, he and Moira carried the body down the cliff.

The Border Knights pointed back up the cliff, and started leading the characters further on their journey.

Eventually, the characters came back to a normal sized cave with crumbling ruins. In one ruin slept the Alpha Grick. Playing another strange flute was the Border Knight with the scythe. He motioned for the characters to follow him, and led them to a natural spring. The trees were filled with crows and ravens, who croaked with one voice, "It is time to be honest with your intentions about the Hag O'Gwa."

17-18 Amber Ant 1310

Captain Corvroc lowered his scythe to the ground, and told the characters that the role of the Border Knights was to maintain a balance of power between Granny O'gwa and Queen Nostraya. He did not want to guide the characters to Granny O'gwa for fear of her gaining too much power. However, Moira and Vimak convinced Corvroc to reconsider. He decided to summon his fellow Keepers of the Feather to provide council.

As the characters rested, and ravens slowly fluttered into the glen, they talked with Gazu, a gnome artificer who had been living in the Hagwood for 50 years. He seemed to be a friend of Corvroc's. When Corvroc inquired about their fallen companion, and the characters said Domyra's name, the tortle seemed shocked. Taking off his mask, he revealed himself to be Domyra's long lost son.

Overnight, the Keepers of the Feather gathered. The characters recognized Davian, the tavernkeeper of the Blue Otter Pub, and Sehnovi, the owner of the Kettle & Caw. Present were two humans and a plump tortle woman named Fernellen.

Vimak made his case. He called for the Keepers of the Feather to give up on their faulty attempts of balancing power. He convinced most of the Keepers, but Fernellen spoke up, urging caution. Vimak pushed further, and won over the opinions of the Council. They decided that Captain Corvroc should lead the characters to Granny O'gwa. Fernellen also asked that if they find the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind, they return it to the Keepers of the Feather.

Captain Corvroc lead the characters down to the Stilt Fort, across a bridge, and through cliffs. Soon the waters rose and the characters had to climb across the giant roots of cypress trees. From the water burst Sister Seahorse, one of Granny O'gwa's daughters, riding a plesiosaur.

Sister Seahorse's terrible visage frightened many of the characters, but they still fought back. Corvroc struck with his star-metal scythe, and then burst into a cloud of ravens. Vimak fired his crossbow and sent Wyvern Steel flying at the neck of the plesiosaur. Moira launched eldritch blasts, striking the plesiosaur multiple times. And Gazu threw his magical returning battleaxes and lit Sister Seahorse's seaweed-dressed shoulder aflame. Finally Cab struck out with a devastating Inflict Wounds, killing Sister Seahorse. The plesiosaur retreated into the depths.

Corvroc led the characters back into the waterfall caves, and through to a tunnel infested with gricks. However, with his bone flute, he was able to drive away the gricks, and keep the Alpha Grick asleep.

The characters passed into a region of the swamp heavily influenced by the Shadowfell. All seemed like an eerie and twisted reflection of reality. Cab used his radiant wings to fly a rope over a gap between cliffs, allowing the characters to avoid bone-filled, rotted waters.

Finally, Corvroc led the characters to the pathway to Berez, the town around Granny O'gwa's tower. There they met Nila, a pleasant satyr, and a strange rocky creature who seemed to be guarding the path. Moira convinced Nila to let them through in order to offer a deal to Granny O'gwa. However, Gazu asked about a second path, and the characters found out a mysterious and wise figure known as Dorodorodorandel resided further into the Fell.

The characters decided to meet this source of wisdom. They found themselves face-to-face with a gargantuan turtle spirit, and were able to get the answers to three questions, each for the price of a cabbage.

First, Dordorodorandel told the characters that at one time O'gwa and other spirits, such as himself and the Wolf King, had been rulers of the Valley. However, their territories were taken first by the Luminaires, then by the Starsworn Knights. The Keepers of the Feather kept peace between O'gwa and the rest of the realm. However, when Queen Nostraya appeared, the Keepers of the Feather switched alliances and attempted to drive O'gwa from the Valley. They failed.

Secondly, the characters asked about the daughter of Marina. Though he couldn't answer, Dorodorodorandel urged them to seek the Baron of Berez, who lived in a manor overlooking a graveyard. He would know of Marina and her daughter.

Finally, the characters asked what Granny O'gwa may seek in a deal. The turtle spirit told them that Granny O'gwa seeks power; not just power over the valley but a powerful magic item. The magic item she has been using as a source of magic power will be destroyed by the end of the year. She will require another powerful item to use as a source.

Corvroc recognized this item as the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind, an artifact handed down by the gods of the Valley. He told the characters that if it were destroyed, there would be no way to free the valley from its eternal shadow.

18 Amber Ant 1310

In the Hagwood, the characters passed by the satyr Nila and her strange korred guard, and headed down the path of stone heads towards Berez.

Berez was a ruin of a town sunken into mire, covered in thick fog. Magic kept Corvroc from entering, and so he and Birrik stayed to guard Domyra's body.

The characters first headed towards the ruins of a manor. Cab and Moira were tempted by an overgrown garden, but stopped when they saw a large poisonous snake hiding beneath the leaves. Gazu and Vimak explored the manor. Gazu realized the manor had been picked over, but saw a newly exposed staircase heading down to a basement.

The characters soon encountered the ghost of the Baron of Berez. The Baron told the story of Marina, who was Nostraya's daughter. She was a beloved villager in Berez, and had been married to the Baron's son. Just before the Battle of Berez she started acting strangely, talking to herself and saying her mother had died. In the Battle of Berez, Queen Nostraya, now cursed with vampirism, sought out her daughter. But the Baron killed Marina to prevent her from being forever cursed. The Baron's last vision before his death was Tatyana, Marina's daughter, being stolen away by the Keepers of the Feather.

Cab climbed into a goat pen next to the manor to grab a tempting snack for the snake. However, the skulls along the fence of the pen started to scream.

Floating through the mist came Granny O'gwa in her flying giant's skull. She invited the characters back to her cabin for tea.

O'gwa's cabin was built atop the rotting stump of a giant tree. Cab first asked O'gwa about resurrecting Domyra. O'gwa said she could do it if someone willingly pledged themselves to her service for the rest of their life.

Vimak laid out all he knew about the failing power of the artifact O'gwa kept, and offered to trade it for another powerful item. Granny O'gwa said all she was willing to trade it for was a blade that Nostraya formed from the Ember Heart, another fallen star.

Gazu asked how he could break the Moonstone, and O'gwa laughed and said it was impossible. Even if he could shatter the fallen star, as Nostraya had done with the Ember Heart, he may suffer a similar terrible curse.

The characters asked about Marina, and Granny O'gwa looked sad. She said she had loved the girl, who was an ambassador to her when the town was occupied by mortal beings. O'gwa blamed with great spite the Keepers of the Feather for turning against her and stealing away Tatyana, Marina's daughter.

Granny O'gwa went to bed inside her cabin, and the characters journeyed over to the Clock Tower.

There, they were treated to a fine meal of frog pie, frog stew, and fresh-baked bread by the Clocktower Coven: Sister Skink, Sister Shrike, and Sister Shrew. When the sisters went to bed, the characters hatched a plan.

While Cab pulled cabbages from the garden, Gazu and Vimak distracted one of the Satyr guards with Gazu's tinkering magic. Moira snuck up the stairs and up the tower. She passed by the bedroom of the Clocktower Coven and climbed through a trap door. There she found children and fey creatures trapped in magic cages. She convinced a sprite to let her up to the top of the tower.

In the top of the tower, she found a strange object, sometimes a sun and sometimes a moon, hurtling in circles along an arcane path. Occasionally it stopped floating and fell to the floor in the form of an amulet. There were odd contraptions in the room. Moira reached for the celestial object and was badly burned by it. While the sprite laughed, she healed herself and investigated the two other contraptions. One was a Chronometer, which allowed her to stop the transit of the sun and moon.

The sprite lost patience and shot an arrow at Moira, then flew out of the room. Moira started investigating the other device, but was shot by the sprite. She fell to the sprite's poison.

Down below, Cab witnessed the sprite fly down and inform its companion that there was an intruder above. As the sprites flew off, he entered the tower and whispered to Vimak. Gazu, Vimak, and Cab sprung a surprise attack against the two satyr guards.

As one guard tried to run towards the door, Vimak knocked it out with a combination of his greataxe and Wyvern Steel. Cab wrestled the other satyr to the floor. However, it sprung free and tried escaping. Gazu threw his returning handaxes, knocking the satyr out.

Cab saw that the balcony door on the third floor was open. Vimak threw a grappling hook, and Gazu jumped on his back. When the group climbed up, the children started calling for their help, saying they didn't want to turn into fey creatures or frogs.

Vimak promised to free them, then climbed up through the final trap door. He saw Moira's body unconscious beneath the two flying sprites.

18 Amber Ant 1310

As Vimak peeked through the trap door into the top of the clock tower, the waiting pixies attacked! The pixies attempted to poison and then flee the characters, but they were struck down, both by Cab's Toll the Dying spells.

With a little breathing room, the characters woke Moira and investigated the top two stories. Gazu was able to figure out the second device near the floating sun-and-moon: an energy cell that drained power from the flying reliquary. The cages below were connected to the energy cell, and the transformative magic of the hags was powered by it.

The characters freed the children, and found out they had been traded to O'gwa by their parents for favors and miracles.

Back upstairs, the characters drained more power from the frozen sun-and-moon. Vimak, with his quick reflexes, was able to snatch the reliquary just as it turned back into an amulet. Gazu cast Identify and learned that this amulet is the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind, an extremely powerful artifact that requires a good cleric or paladin to attune to it.

Having fulfilled the prophesy of the Crone Star Card, the characters gained the Blessing of the Crone Star and leveled up!

Suddenly, Corvroc appeared at the balcony. Whatever magic that had held him back was gone. He urged the characters to hurry out of Berez, for one of the Clocktower Coven had awoken.

The characters climbed down from the tower and snuck off through the mists. They passed through some ancient standing stones, and made their way towards the river. However, the creepy scarecrows at the river's edge had animated and attacked!

Vimak struck out with a flurry of axe and sword strikes. Corvroc sliced with his scythe. Moira and Cab both cast Toll the Dying, draining magic life from the scarecrows, and Gazu lit the constructs ablaze with his Firebolts. Though Cab was almost struck down, the characters soon demolished the animated scarecrows.

Before they crossed the river, Corvroc demanded that the characters turn over the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind, which the Keepers of the Feather had coveted for centuries. Moira was able to intercede and persuade Corvroc to lead the group safely through the Hagwood.

The characters walked along the path of stone faces to where they had encountered a satyr named Nila. She floated dead in the river, a victim of the korred who had once guarded her. Corvroc noted that Granny O'gwa's power over the fey creatures had diminished. The korred started attacking, burrowing through the stone heads and casting a powerful spell at Vimak- who was protected by the blessing of the Crone Star.

Moira cast Darkness over the korred, and the group started to flee towards Dorodorodorandel.

18 - 19 Amber Ant 1310

The fight with the korred continued. Corvroc closed in with the fey creature as the characters fled towards Dorodorodorandel. The korred summoned a gargoyle, which grabbed Cab and tried to drag him back to the river. Moira hit the korred in the head with an Eldritch Blast, breaking his concentration and shattering the gargoyle. But before Cab could run, he was knocked out by a boulder thrown by the korred.

Gazu jabbed Cab with a syringe to heal him. As Vimak launched crossbow bolts and Wyvern Steel at the korred, the characters fled down the stone path.

Taking refuge with the dragon turtle spirit, the characters asked a few more questions. Vimak found directions to quickly exit from the Hagwood. Moira found out that Granny O'gwa has few weaknesses, but is loathe to leave her magic swamp. They also found out that Dorodorodorandel's physical form slumbers somewhere in the mortal realm outside the Hagwood.

The characters started traveling through the Hagwood. They passed from the Shadowfell back into the caves. When Corvroc tried to tame the awaiting alpha grick with his bone flute, he discovered that the magical instrument, a gift of Granny O'gwa, had lost its power. As Corvroc held off the alpha grick, the characters fled into the caves.

Two more gricks awaited in the caves. One was blasted to pieces by Gazu's Firebolt, and the other was cut in half by Vimak's greataxe.

Heading south, the characters found that the cave's waters had been fouled by the corpse of the giant frog. They stumbled under the influence of the poisonous fumes.

Suddenly Corvroc appeared, flying in as a swarm of ravens and then landing as a tortle. He demanded, once more, the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind. The characters refused to hand it over, and Corvroc refused to wait for the Council of Ravens to make a decision. Combat began.

Corvroc blocked most of the characters with a sphere of darkness, then closed in on Vimak. They traded blows, each drawing blood. Cab attempted to drain Corvroc's life with a Toll the Dead spell, but the captain of the Border Knights resisted. Gazu used Alter Self to become Domyra, and stepped out of the darkness, attempting to reason with Corvroc. Though he believed the spirit of his long lost mother stood before him, the tortle refused to listen to reason. Moira, too, attempted to negotiate with Corvroc, but her words met a fiery, fanatic resistance.

Though Vimak was being sliced from every side by Corvroc's starborn scythe, he held strong. When Corvroc deflected Wyvern Steel into the mud, Vimak struck true and lopped off the tortle's head. As the body fell to the ground, it burst into a swarm of ravens that flew off into every direction. Vimak tossed the scythe to Moira.

The characters walked back to Ravenwood Court, arriving midday. They saw signs of chaos in town, and learned from Kingsley of the King Crow Market that in the morning the fey creatures residing in the Ravenwood Court Manor had run out, vanishing down the river and into the Hagwood.

In the Kettle & Caw, the characters were greeted by Sehnovi. She was saddened by Corvroc's fanaticism and untimely ending, but agreed to summon the Council of Ravens.

After a long night's rest, the characters emerged from their rooms to find the tavern more busy than normal. Guards with red castle emblems on their black leather armor sat around the tables. Gazu recognized these as Ember Guards, soldiers of Queen Nostraya. Silhouetted against the fire was a tortle in a hooded cloak. She pulled back her hood, revealing herself to be Domyra's twisted double, summoned from the ruins of the Durst Manor.

19 Amber Ant 1310

Amyrod, Domyra's evil reflection, demanded of the characters the location of their fallen tortle companion. The guards read out a notice stating that the Kettle & Caw was a house of conspiracy, and that it was now the possession of Queen Nostraya. When Moira attempted to cast a spell, Amyrod grabbed Moira and dragged her into the room.

The characters leapt to battle, though Gazu was able to temporarily talk down the guards. However, when Vimak started chopping away at Amyrod, the guards joined back into the melee. Sehnovi turned into a raven and distracted one of the guards. Gazu and Moira were able to talk Amyrod into backing off and turning her attention to the Hagwood. Meanwhile, Vimak dealt handily with the guards, killing three and knocking out one who attempted to flee.

Amyrod left to seek her vengeance in the Hagwood, but warned Moira she would return if she felt unsatisfied.

The characters revived the remaining guard and asked him about Nostraya's intentions. He said that the Keepers of the Feather had long been enemies of Queen Nostraya. The Devil Queen would be arriving that night, and there would be nowhere for her enemies to hide.

Vimak dealt with the guard. Sehnovi took the children and fled on the river, promising to send word when the Council of Ravens found a new safehaven.

The characters started traveling to the Ravenwood Court Manor, but stopped at the King Crow Market. They negotiated with Kingsley, working the price of the Axe of the Ogre Knight down to 2250 gp, the plate armor, and a potion from Gazu. However, they still weren't satisfied and instead decided to retrieve Birrik's chest of gold.

In the Ravenwood Court Manor, the characters found evidence of the escape of the fey creatures. Statues were overturned, paintings tipped off the walls. However, Master Quorrian continued to host his guests, and was currently enjoying a theatre performance by the Moonstone Players.

Master Quorrian was satisfied with the news of Marina's daughter, and hired the characters to find out more, promising a 500 gold reward for further information.

Back in the guest room, the characters found Birrik's chest and Skywatcher Volno, who had been cleared of his curse by Sister Spider. Volno's niece, however, had been taken prisoner by Master Quorrian. When Gazu found out how Master Quorrian was drinking the blood of these prisoners, he became enraged. Though he wanted to kill Quorrian, he was talked out of it by the group.

With the chest in Vimak's hands, the group returned to the King Crow Market and bought the Axe of the Ogre Knight. They then set sail aboard the Queensbane well before nightfall.

On the boat, the characters saw some tortles running through the muck, pursued by gnolls.

Gazu told the story of how he had been working to create healing potions for Queen Nostraya, only to find out they were being used to heal prisoners in a town called Harvest so that the devil queen could freely drink of their blood.

Vimak attuned to the axe, only to discover it carried a curse! The Axe of the Beserker would cause Vimak to continue attacking until no creatures lived within 60 feet of him. Moira was able to free him of this curse.

The characters also studied the chest, which Moira identified as belonging to her former devil master Lord Obsidikis. The lock on the chest was particularly tricky; it was cursed, and required a very high Thieves Tools check.

As night fell, the characters found a high cliff to camp on. However, at its base was a zombie stuck in a wrecked fishing boat. Moira easily killed the zombie with a Sacred Flame spell. As the zombie turned to ash, three strange creatures made of steam came flying down the cliff towards the characters!

19 - 20 Amber Ant 1310

The steam mephits dove down towards the characters aboard the Queensbane.

Vimak and Moira shot holes through one with crossbow bolts and Eldritch Blast, and Cab finished it off with Toll the Dead. It exploded into a boiling cloud of steam. A second mephit breathed out a cone of hot steam, burning Vimak, Moira, and Cab, and damaging the Queensbane's sail. Gazu shot a mephit with a firebolt, but was dismayed to find out the elemental imp was immune to his blast. Vimak sent out Wyvern Steel, and soon the remaining mephits also burst into steam.

Gazu quickly collected some mephit steam in a jar while Cab investigated the wrecked rowboat. He found out the boat and its owner were both from the Blue Otter Pub and Boatworks.

The characters made camp. During the night, Gazu studied the magic steam and devised a way to manipulate it into a new spell.

The next morning, the characters came upon an area of the river that had once been dammed. A river guide named Skelver was being attacked by two shadows. The characters struck down the shadows, and asked Skelver his business.

Skelver revealed that the island next to the dam had once been the site of a burial statue, a mound of mud and stones in which was buried the bones of a tortle mystic. Though the burial statue had long ago dissolved back into the earth, Skelver still stopped here to leave offerings. Unfortunately the site had recently been cursed by Queen Nostraya, and was haunted by the shadows.

Skelver offered his services as a river guide, however the characters were angered by his salary of two gold pieces a day. Gazu and Moira attempted to intimidate him into working for free, but only succeeded at driving him away. Skelver rowed off down the river.

North of Ottswald, the characters came upon the ruins of a riverside village. Cab and Gazu explored the old, rundown buildings, and recovered some rope and nets. Moira and Vimak entered a wrecked ship from the Ember Keep. Inside, they found a small submerged chest with gnomish writing on it.

As Moira reached for the chest, she was attacked by a hidden giant octopus! The creature wrapped a tentacle around her leg, breaking the bone and dragging her into the water. Moira used Misty Step to escape to the dock.

Vimak closed in on the giant octopus, cleaving into its fleshy body with his axe. The octopus released a cloud of ink and dove down into the water, hiding away.

When Moira attempted to run to land, the octopus attacked from its hidden spot under the pier. It grabbed Moira and drove her into the dock, knocking her unconscious.

Vimak sent Wyvern Steel after the octopus, cutting it into pieces. Gazu stopped Moira's bleeding, and Cab awoke her with a healing spell. Vimak cut up the octopus into steaks, and the characters sailed off again.

That evening the characters entered the mouth of a river heading to Umber Dell. They saw a ship ahead covered in colored lanterns. It was the Grinning Mare, a casino riverboat. Aboard, Moira helped heal sick and injured sailors, and found out that the ship was owned by Mr. Bones, the head of the House of Silver Smiles in Seabriar. Vimak observed a fight between homunculi, and won some money while betting on a recreation of the duel between Dawnbreaker and Baron Rothvel. Gazu used some alchemical trickery to distract the players at a card table, and later some psionic magic and guidance from Cab, and won a good amount of gold.

Rather than stay the night, the characters decided to reach Umber Dell before the evening grew too late.

As the Queensbane neared the tortle village of Aldertree, the characters saw gnolls and tortles in a tense scene. Master Zealous, a broad-shouldered gnoll in a gleaming chain shirt and white cloak with the symbol of an eclipse on the back emptied a bag of tortle bones in the middle of the village center. He demanded more servants for the peat bogs, saying he would take five healthy adults, or ten children.

An old one-armed, one-eyed tortle named Tolzin, enraged, attacked one of the gnolls, knocking the wind from it. A tortle mother wrestled children from the grasp of one of the gnolls. The gnolls started firing special arrows they had dipped into pouches, the arrowheads bursting into flames and alighting the village.

Vimak charged in, cutting a gnoll in two. The gnoll's body shriveled down to the form of a hyena, and black ichor escaped from its mouth, forming a vaguely humanoid shape for a moment before sinking down into the mud.

Moira attempted to convince Master Zealous to not take any new tortles, arguing that the gnolls would be using up their resources. Master Zealous was convinced... to take these new intruders as prisoner instead! He struck out with his glaive, cutting at Vimak.

Gazu burst apart another gnoll with his new spell Steamroller. Cab cast Bane, cursing one of the gnolls. The old tortle Tolzin charged another gnoll, and the tortle mother inspired Vimak to charge at a gnoll pulling back his arrow. Vimak cut him down.

Master Zealous closed in on Moira, cutting her once with his glaive, and then knocking her out. As he charged at Cab, teeth bared, another gnoll struck at Tolzin, leaving him bleeding on the ground.

Gazu healed Moira and cut at Master Zealous's legs. Cab attempted to cast a mighty Inflict Wounds on Master Zealous, but the gnoll's gleaming armor blocked his hand. As Master Zealous laughed madly, the fire spread over the village.

20 - 21 Amber Ant 1310

Aldertree burned as the characters faced off against Master Zealous and a final gnoll guard. Gazu cut at the slave master, and Cab finished him off with a devastating Inflict Wounds spell. Moira healed the old tortle Tolzin, and pursued the final gnoll. She finally blasted him down with an eldritch bolt.

The characters helped put out the fires in town. Cab kicked dirt over the flames, and Gazu joined a bucket brigade. Moira cast Tiny Hut to protect a sacred burial mound that held the bones of an ancient tortle mystic. Only one building was lost to the fires.

Once the fires had been put out and the bodies of the gnolls had been dragged into the river, the characters settled down around the fire with their tortle hosts.

Tolzin and Klania explained to the characters the troubles that had recently beset Umber Dell. Proctor Doviaen, head priest of the Citadel of Eternal Sorrows, had imported gnolls from distant lands to enforce enslavement of the tortles. Tortle slaves were taken to the peat bogs of Blind Hollow and worked to death. Meanwhile, Skywatcher Aris, the spiritual leader of Aldertree, had gone missing. The Skywatcher had retreated to the Omyrian Fortress to try to consult the spirit of the dragon turtle and summon a falling star, a very powerful ritual. Three months had passed, and the village had not heard from Aris. Unfortunately, the only people who knew the location of the Omyrian Fortress were members of the Omyrian Order, a group of warriors sworn to protect the Skywatcher. All the members of the Omyrian Order had either gone with Aris, or were taken by gnolls.

Tolzin told the characters that his daughter, Tolka, was a member of the Omyrian Order. She was enslaved in Blind Hollow, but had sent word that she would be in a part of the bog known as the Rowan Ways.

Klarian said she feared a gnome artificer named Skirovan was responsible for the disappearance of Skywatcher Aris. A year ago, the gnome had come to Aldertree to try to harm Skywatcher Aris on Queen Nostraya's behalf. The Omyrian Order was able to drive the gnome away, and he retreated to an abandoned temple known as the Howling Grounds.

The characters stayed the night in Aldertree. The next morning, beneath low black clouds, the characters crossed the river to Vetch. They found a village of clean cobblestone streets and tall, beautiful manors, all maintained by tortle servants and slaves. Cab bought a suit of stately clothes from the Holland Brothers Haberdashery, along with a fine hat. Moira also bought a fine hat.

The characters investigated a fountain at the center of the village that had been polluted with green slime. As they investigated, Proctor Doviaen, along with his two gnoll guards Pious and Devout, approached. Though at first put off by Gazu's plain clothing and hatless head, Doviaen eventually agreed to tell the characters about his problem with the fountain. A week ago, Doviaen made an enemy of Skirovan by stealing an alchemical product from him. He feared the gnome had cursed the village's fountain.

If the characters solved the problem with the fountain, he promised them a seat on the stage at the nightly liturgy, a position that would gain them a powerful reputation in Vetch.

Gazu promised to help in return for a fine hat from the haberdashery.

Before leaving Vetch, the characters investigated Madam White's School of Etiquette and Labor, but were not let in the door without a reservation. Inside the fenced grounds, they saw tortles maintaining a beautiful garden.

The characters sailed up the river in the Queensbane. As they neared Lake Omyr, the waters became polluted with slime. They trudged through the thick swamp towards the Howling Grounds.

Outside the temple, the characters were attacked by giant skeletal serpents, undead constructs made up of the bones of other creatures. Gazu, Cab, and Moira each struck powerful blows against the creatures, and with the help of Wyvern Steel quickly cut them down.

At the doors of the temple, Moira discovered a swinging blade trap. Together, she and Gazu unlocked the door. They stood back, and Moira opened the doors magically, staying a safe distance from the swinging blade.

As the doors opened, the characters saw a further chamber covered in familiar green slime...

21 Amber Ant 1310

The characters recognized the slime covering the chamber walls as a less diluted version of the same from the Vetch fountain. They carefully made their way around the slime and into a further room, where they saw an arcane circle drawn around a dragon skeleton.

Vimak investigated a connecting room and found Skirovan's notes. The notes revealed that Skirovan had been sent by Queen Nostraya to turn or kill Skywatcher Aris. He had been driven away to this abandoned temple, where he decided to summon the necrotic powers of Null, the dragon god of death. Skirovan had found the Omyrian Fortress, hidden behind a waterfall in Lake Omyr. He had set a magic trap that would possess any who used divine magic.

Cab heard a voice coming from another room, and within the characters found Miva, a halfling who worked for Skirovan. She urged the characters to cross the bridge across a huge pool of ooze.

Instead, the characters explored a room with wells filled with gray slime. They found a stone dragon head pouring out fresh water into a basin, above which read the words "Six scholars shall drink of my wisdom, and open the door."

Suddenly a gray ooze and an ooze-covered skeleton crawled out of the wells and started attacking! Meanwhile, two dragonborn skeletons fired arrows across the ooze.

Vimak attacked Miva, who transformed into a werebat. She tried to escape into the air, but he cut her down with Wyvern Steel. Gazu sent a Steamroller that boiled away the gray ooze. Moira send an Eldritch Blast that exploded the oozing skeleton.

Meanwhile, Cab sent Sacred Flames against the skeletal archers. As one skeleton crumbled, he started to cross the bridge. The giant pool of ooze started to churn, and a massive pseudopod reached up and slammed him into the stones.

Cab retreated, and eventually the group healed up and started investigating.

Gazu discovered that both the arcane circle and the oozing skeleton were a mix of necrotic magic and alchemy, a combination he had never seen before. Vimak drank from the pool of fresh water, and found it to be clean and refreshing. Cab and Moira took a look at the statue of an Omyrian scholar on the wall. They discovered it was a secret door connected somehow to an empty brazier.

Searching for wood to burn, Cab wandered back into the room with Skirovan's notes. He noticed some of the dragon carvings on the wall formed the corners of a secret door. Moira used ink to connect the dragons, and a short hallway magically appeared in the wall.

Behind the wall was an ancient treasure chest and an undead guard. Cab called upon the power of Arawan to turn undead, and the wight huddled against the far way. Moira dragged the treasure chest out of the room, and Gazu continued to drag the chest back into the large chamber, though he upset the arcane circle and was burned by acid.

Moira sent an Eldritch Blast at the wight, freeing it from the effects of Turn Undead and starting the battle. Vimak charged in, chopping at the undead. Cab attempted to cast Toll the Dead, but the undead guard refused the call. The wight reached out with a claw and drained some life from Vimak, but was blasted to pieces by Moira's eldritch bolt.

21 Amber Ant 1310

As Gazu dragged the treasure chest out into the large chamber, one of the dragonborn skeletons emerged and shot at him with an arrow. Gazu returned the attack with his Steamroller, destroying the dragonborn skeleton. Within the treasure chest, the characters found gold and gems.

Cab lit some firewood in the brazier by the statue of the Omyrian scholar, opening the secret door. It led to a hallway and a hidden library. In the library, the characters found some notes by Skirovan. It detailed how he had been making fire powder for Proctor Doviaen and his gnolls, but had stopped to focus more on his studies of alchemy and necromancy. Proctor Doviaen had sent his gnolls to steal the remaining fire powder.

The characters also recovered some alchemical recipes for two potions: a Potion of Watchful Rest and Oil of Slipperiness.

Through the secret hallway, the characters were able to circumvent the giant ooze. Vimak led them to another hallway with a tattered rug and barrels full of dark soil and writhing grubs. A brown mold clung to the floor of the hallway, pulling heat from the air.

Through one of the hallway doors, the characters found a chamber used to butcher corpses. Gazu investigated a corpse, and was able to piece together clues to tell its story. It was a barbarian from the mountains, and had been killed by one of Skirovan's bone serpents. Gazu dug around in one of the barrels and found humanoid organs being devoured by larvae.

Cab circled around another hallway and found four stone tablets. The ancient tablets told of a battle between the gods of the valley and dark magic symbolized by an eclipse. The Dragon Turtle summoned dragons through a storm cloud to win the battle. Skirovan had drawn a cave in the carved mountains and written "Not all left. Null remains."

Vimak unlocked a door with Miva's brass key. Behind the door was a large hall used by Skirovan to create his skeletal creatures. Cab read over Skirovan's notes, and Vimak took Skirovan's glowing blue orb. Two statues of Omyrian scholars stood against the wall, holding out stone bowls. Vimak poured fresh water from the dragon fountain into both bowls as Gazu and Moira ran to get more water.

Moira opened a door to reveal a large room covered in a clear slime. A black dragon wyrmling flew about, hissing and speaking Draconic. It clawed at Moira, then hid behind a column. Gazu cast Catapult, launching a skull at the dragon's head. As Cab moved into the room, a nearly invisible Gelatinous Cube suddenly slid towards him. Cab and Moira retreated from the cube, but Cab was engulfed. Vimak pulled him from the slime. Moira killed the dragon wyrmling with a Sacred Flame spell, but suddenly Gazu was engulfed by the Gelatinous Cube. Whipping out Wyvern Steel, Vimak cut the Cube to pieces and freed the gnome.

Two more Omyrian scholar statues stood in this room, both holding bowls. Vimak and Gazu poured in clean water.

The characters investigated the two stairways and curving hallways. Both revealed statues of Omyrian scholars holding out bowls. In one hallway, Moira was struck by a spear trap. Cab discovered a hidden treasure chest with three potions brewed by the Omyrian scholars.

Gazu and Vimak poured water into the final two bowls. The characters heard the shifting of stone from somewhere in the temple. They returned to the ritual chamber to find a section of the stone wall had lowered, revealing a round stone room with a pool of ooze at the center. Skirovan, a gnome alchemist dressed in bones and rusting metal scales, sat in the ooze.

Moira attempted to reason with Skirovan, but when he found out they had killed his "dragon child," he flew into a rage. He cast a spell that erupted the earth beneath the characters' feet. Vimak was able to leap back in time, but Moira and Gazu were knocked unconscious. Skirovan then drank from the slime in the pool, and retched forth an ochre jelly that slowly crawled towards the characters.

Cab healed Gazu back to full health. In turn, Gazu healed Moira. As Vimak launched crossbow bolts at the ochre jelly, Skirovan sent Magic Missiles at Cab. Too late, the ochre jelly reached Moira and struck with its pseudopod, knocking her out again.

Skirovan laughed and committed these sacrifices to Null, Last Lord of the Dragons.

21 - 22 Amber Ant 1310

Before Skirovan could cast another devastating spell, Gazu called out for the necromancer to hear their plea. Gazu convinced Skirovan to consider helping the characters in their quest to dethrone Queen Nostraya. Gazu used his tinkering tools to make Skirovan's arcane focus more powerful, and this in turn helped him convince Skirovan to help them defeat the Revered Oriandos.

Skirovan told the group that the Revered Oriandos lived at the top of the Citadel of Eternal Sorrows. However, he was guarded by Proctor Doviaen and his gnolls. When the group had a plan of how to get past the gnolls, they could come back and he would help kill Oriandos.

The group made their way back to the Queensbane and Aldertree. In a conversation with the elderly tortle Tolzin, the group learned that Queen Nostraya did not visit Umber Dell much because she and the other vampires who carried their curse lost control as they traveled further from the Ember Keep.

The next morning, the characters sailed through the rain towards Lake Omyr. There, they found the lake polluted and occupied by dangerous creatures. A harpy matriarch charmed the characters with her sorcerous singing. A wrecked fishing vessel damaged the Queensbane. A second harpy called to the characters, and while they fought both harpies, a water weird attacked the boat.

As the characters neared the hidden entrance to the Omyrian Fortress, the Queensbane became caught in the pull of a whirlpool. Working together, the characters pushed at the rocks and worked at the oars to free their boat.

Finally, the Queensbane sailed through the waterfall into the hidden Omyrian Fortress. Within, the characters found a large natural cavern turned into an underground structure. Three tortles, Omyrian Warriors, were possessed by some strange dark energy and started to attack!

22 Amber Ant 1310

Moira sailed the Queensbane closer to the possessed tortles as the characters took up defense against the attack. Gazu was able to identify the dark magic possessing the tortles as a result of Skirovan's arcane trap; the tortles were still alive within! One tortle was knocked unconscious by Wyvern Steel; another willed himself into unconsciousness after Gazu temporarily woke him from the charm. The last tortle was knocked out by Quiet, a kenku ward of the Omyrian Order who had been hiding in the cave since the necromantic magic took effect.

Cabbage investigated the stone turtle statues, and found that they were alters where the Omyrian Order gave offerings of food. He placed some cabbage leaves in the stone bowl on the turtle's back. Divine magics flooded out from the statue, banishing the necromantic forces possessing the tortles. As Gazu rowed the Queensbane to a second turtle statue, Cab woke up one of the Omyrian Warriors, a tortle named Krialdut. He warned the characters of a trap on the long stone staircase.

Quiet and Moira searched for the trap, and found a stone step not as worn as the others. Quiet was able to jam the device, preventing rocks from falling on the characters. Moira, with her devilish darkvision, saw that more possessed tortles and a group of spectral skeletons awaited in the fortress atop the stairs.

The characters came up with a plan. Moira cast darkness on a dagger, then ran up the stairs and dropped some cabbage leaves in a turtle altar. Using a minor illusion spell, she created the sound of Skywatcher Aris's voice. The possessed tortles were drawn by the illusion into the aura of the stone turtle. They collapsed to the ground, and the necromantic energies were separated from their mortal bodies, taking the form of shadowy dragons.

Two of the dragons struck at Moira with their dagger-like tails, and one pursued Quiet. Moira dropped, but Vimak and Gazu were able to cut one shadow dragon down. Cab healed Moira, who then blasted the third shadow dragon with an arcane bolt. Finally, Quiet slashed the apparition to pieces with his rapier and dagger.

Cab gathered his companions together and used a Prayer of Healing to bolster the group. Two of the tortles were also healed: Kuedott and Krequo. They pointed the way to Skywatcher Aris, begging the characters to save their leader.

Just then, the darkness dropped away around the dagger, revealing the three spectral skeletons!

22 Amber Ant 1310

The spectral skeletons shot down arrows on the characters, but were quickly cut down by a volley of spells from Moira and Cab.

The group set about exploring the Omyrian Fortress. Gazu found Skywatcher Aris, a young tortle, in a meditative state in front of a statue of Dorodorodorandel. Looking closely, he found the runes from where Skirovan had set his trap. He was able to identify the rune as a glyph of warding that was triggered to cast summon undead.

Meanwhile, Vimak investigated the fortress's smithy. He found a tortle blacksmith sitting in the embers of the forge, possessed by dark magic.

Cab ascended a stone staircase to find Aris's bedroom, full of fine furniture as befits a spiritual leader. He lay down for a nap on the bed.

As Vimak turned to alert his allies, the possessed tortle awoke and screamed. In the bedroom, five shadows appeared and surrounded Cab.

The characters started to battle these undead. The Flameshell cast a fireball that Vimak, Moira, and Gazu were able to dodge. Vimak sent Wyvern Steel after the possessed tortle, driving it out of its hiding place. Though the Flameshell burned Vimak, he was able to knock out the tortle and destroy the evil spirit.

Upstairs, Cab's cloak of protection, shield, and Gazu's casting of sanctuary protected the cleric from most of the shadows' attacks. As Moira and Quiet leapt out of the stairway, cutting and casting at the shadows, Cab cast spells of radiance against his foes. Together, the group was able to destroy the evil shadows, but not before much of Cab's strength was drained away.

Cab lay down to rest in the bed, and Vimak and Moira also rested and recovered. Gazu and Quiet went to investigate Skywatcher Aris. They searched all about the room, but could find no secret traps. However, they were able to identify that Aris was under the effects of a magic charm, keeping his spirit trapped.

Vimak returned to the smithy. Looking about, he found some strange tools, made from iron and some kind of lustrous shell.

Cab read through the books and scrolls of Skywatcher Aris. He found details collected by generations of Skywatchers naming the original gods of the Valley:

• Dorodorodorandel, the Dragon Turtle, god of storms and stones.

• Mithrakin, the Kind Raven, god of day, night, and language.

• O'gwa, the Mother of Mysteries, goddess of animals, birth, and death.

• Vorenzis, the Wolf King, god of dreams and the hunt.

• Senn Venn Va, the Coatl, Serpent of Four Winds, god of the wind, farming, and life.

• Talemai, the Copper Penny Catfish, goddess of rivers, travel, and luck.

Moira found a book, somewhat burnt, with sermons and rituals worshipping Dorodorodorandel. She found out that placing offerings in all the stone turtle altars would fill the entire fortress with divine energy. As she placed cabbage leaves in the final altar, divine magic swept through the fortress. Aris awoke, and cried out that he was being pursued.

Three shadowy figures appeared: two evil shadows, and an allip, an undead creature surrounded by swirling funeral shrouds and terrible, maddening whispers.

The allip flew through stone walls, driving the characters mad by its howling, babbling, and susurrations. Quiet and Gazu cut down the two shadows. Vimak sent Wyvern Steel after the allip, who killed one of the Omyrian Warriors.

Vimak closed in on his enemy, but its shrouds surrounded him, damaging his mind with its psychotic whispers.

22 - 23 Amber Ant 1310

The allip continued to howl. Moira burned away at its undead essence with radiant flames, and Gazu cut the spirit down with two returning handaxes.

Skywatcher Aris invited the characters to rest and spend the night in the Omyrian Fortress. As the characters rested, they talked with Aris about Umber Dell. Aris told them that he had retreated to the fortress to try and call upon Dorodorodorandel to call down a fallen star. Aris knew the true names of the stars, and could call for a star that could be made into different kinds of items. But he did not know the parts of the ritual that controlled the time or place of the event. If they enacted the ritual now, the star could come down in a day or a year, and anywhere in the valley. Aris urged the characters to ask the spirits of the Skywatchers in burial statues throughout Umber Dell. He knew of one, Heptos, Watcher of the Horizon Stars, in Aldertree.

The characters showed Aris the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind. As a good-aligned cleric, Aris could use the amulet. However, if the characters were able to earn permission from Mithraken, the Kind Raven, then any of them could align to it. A temple to Mithraken was hidden beneath the tower where Quiet had once roosted. Aris asked Quiet to eventually lead the characters to the temple.

The characters spent some time with Kolcha, the tortle blacksmith. She crafted a set of studded leather armor for Moira, and a turtle pin for Gazu. She did not have a diamond that Cab needed for a spell, but Quiet was able to forge a fake diamond from scraps.

The next morning, Cab helped lead funeral rites for the dead Omyrian Warrior.

The characters sailed through a thick mist, avoiding a wall of rocks, down to Aldertree. Along the way they spotted some quicklings, a kind of fey creature, in a willow tree.

In Aldertree, Cab cast Speak to Dead, and the characters asked questions of Heptos, Watcher of the Horizon Stars. The old Skywatchers spirit told the characters that he did not know of the other two parts of the ritual, but other Skywatchers would. He explained that two other Burial Statues remained in Umber Dell: Savos, Watcher of the Singing Stars, and Baros, Watcher of the Blood Stars.

Savos was hidden somewhere under flowering vines, surrounded by tortles who did not know of him and high walls. Baros stood at the trailhead to someplace called the Amber Temple in Blind Hollow, and had been driven mad. To gain his help, the characters would have to defeat demonic manifestations of his madness.

When asked about the dangers of the Amber Temple, Heptos said the only way to stay safe was to avoid the temple itself, but those who found their way there must resist the temptations of the gifts of the Dark Powers.

The characters crossed the river into Vetch. As Cab tried to distract a jeweler, Quiet switched out his fake diamond with a real one, along with a handful of cheap gems. Moira told the story of Domyra's death to the merchants, capturing their attention with her tragic tale. This allowed Quiet to steal a number of items needed for Aris's ritual to cast Greater Restoration.

The characters made their way to Madam White's School of Etiquette and Labor. As they approached, they heard an argument from within. Madam White argued with the gnoll Devout, saying that there was a mistake in her ledgers. Devout left, and Quiet followed him.

Moira used Thaumaturgy to expand her voice, calling to Madam White that there were adventurers outside who could help. The characters were led into a luxurious parlor, maintained by tortle servants. Madam White explained that Proctor Doviaen required donation to the Citadel of Eternal Sorrows from all citizens of Vetch, and that the required donations were getting more and more expensive. Those who held back were taken to the Revered Oriandos, and were never seen again.

Meanwhile, Quiet followed Devout into the Citadel of Eternal Sorrows. In the grand hall of the temple, Proctor Doviaen led a sermon about the Dark Powers. He said that Queen Nostraya was the first to unlock their gifts. Quiet scrambled up the wall and onto the old, squeaky rafters. He watched as Devout went through a locked back door.

Back in the School of Etiquette and Labor, Madam White agreed to let the characters help her cover her deception of how much she was donating. She explained that the ledgers were kept behind a locked door in the Citadel. As a price, Moira simply asked for a set of fine clothing for Gazu, room and board, and a tour of the garden.

As the characters walked through carefully manicured hedges and flowering trees, Cab spotted a strange column of flowering vines, within which he knew hid a second Burial Statue.

23 Amber Ant 1310

Hiding in the rafters of the Citadel of Eternal Sorrows, Quiet listened as Proctor Doviaen gave a lecture on the Amber Temple. It seemed as if the Proctor wished to seek out the temple himself, in order to gain the gifts of the Dark Powers. Doviaen also called out Micos Holland, one of the haberdashers, for cheating the Citadel of donations. He was dragged to the back of the temple by the gnoll Devout.

Quiet snuck into the back of the temple and found Proctor Doviaen's room. He heard Micos being taken further down the hall to Oriandos. In Doviaen's room, Quiet encountered a strange humanoid made of ooze, almost invisible when still. He ran back out after the ooze folk struck at him with a glass sword.

Back in the garden of Madam White's School of Etiquette and Labor, Vimak distracted the gardeners and guards with a tale of the battle between Dawnbreaker and Baron Rothvel. Cab cast Speak With the Dead and he and Moira were able to ask five questions to Savos, Watcher of the True Stars.

The very talkative burial statue taught the pair how to create a beacon to summon a star to a specific location. He gave them directions to find Baros, Watcher of the Blood Stars, in the Rowan Ways of Blind Hollow. When asked how to free the tortles of Umber Dell, he reinforced the importance of destroying the Revered Oriandos. Savos also told the group that many adventurers had perished in the Amber Temple, leaving much treasure there, but that the temple was unnaturally cold and they would require cold-weather clothing.

The characters decided to attend the evening liturgy with Madam White, and made a plan. Vimak purchased cold-weather clothing for everyone, and the finest set of clothing possible for himself, specially fitted over his armor. Moira summoned a familiar, a white-furred weasel with a rainbow streak down its flank. Quiet cased the Citadel, finding only one other entrance to a barracks for the gnoll guards. He also spied on some gnolls, finding out that they were lead by a gnoll named Master Goodly. Cab snuck down into the sewers beneath the school garden, and discovered the lair of the slithering tracker. The tracker chased him back to the garden, but he escaped without taking damage.

That evening, the characters entered the Citadel of Eternal Sorrows. Quiet stayed hidden, but the others sat in the pews and listened to Proctor Doviaen talk. As the lecture ended, Quiet set some fire powder behind a statue of Queen Nostraya, then lit it. The explosion drew Doviaen, Pious, Devout, and the crowd to the far end of the citadel. The characters ran through a door Quiet had disabled the lock of. Quiet jammed the door behind them.

Within Doviaen's study, the characters found the ledger of Madam White. Quiet changed the ledger so it appeared Madam White owed even more money to the Citadel.

The characters fought ooze folk and gnoll guards as they made their way towards a staircase leading to the Revered Oriandos' room. The characters drew the guards to a doorway, forcing them into close quarters and dispatching them quickly. Vimak got his 50th kill.

The characters quickly climbed the spiral staircase, past many blocked floors. Finally they emerged in a strange room. The wooden floors were heavily waxed, and the walls were all made of glass. The setting sun glowed through stained glass windows, casting rainbow patterns on piles of broken furniture and frayed carpets. An old man in sackcloth sat at a table, facing the sunset.

23 - 24 Amber Ant 1310

Though most of the characters were able to sneak up the stairs of the Citadel of Eternal Sorrows, Vimak and Gazu's clanking armor gave them away. The Revered Oriandos invited the characters to join him, saying he hadn't had any unexpected guests in a while.

While Quiet and Moira stayed hidden in the stairwell, Vimak, Cab, and Gazu spoke with Oriandos. In a trade of information, they learned that Oriandos had been in this room for 300 years, feeding off of the life force of the people of Umber Dell. His immortality gave him great power, but also somehow corroded the furniture in his room, and prevented him from leaving the tower. Like his thrall Doviaen, Oriandos sought the gifts of the Dark Powers of the Amber Temple.

The Revered Oriandos recognized Vimak and Cab from what Queen Nostraya had told him of the death of Baron Rothvel. He said that Rothvel had been trying to escape his destiny for a long time.

Vimak convinced Oriandos to accept Skirovan as a sacrifice and source of power. Oriandos agreed, but on the condition that he got to drain some blood from one of the characters. Moira volunteered, and the group watched as Oriandos bit her neck and drank her blood. Though Moira was weakened, she was not killed.

Oriandos commanded Doviaen to give the characters safe passage. Down below, Gazu was able to convince Doviaen that they had been discussing his own immortality with his master. Doviaen wrote the characters a writ to allow them to pass by any gnoll guards.

Free of the Citadel of Eternal Sorrows, the characters traveled up the river to the Omyrian Fortress. Along the way, they saw a ship pull into the dock at the Tower of the Laughing Lords, cages of hyenas being unloaded. Further upriver, Cab was able to find a deeper channel to avoid damaging rocks.

In the Omyrian Fortress, Skywatcher Aris led a ceremony calling on Dorodorodorandel to restore the health to Moira and Cab. Finally, over a week since their psychic attack from Sister Spider in the Ravenwood Court Manor, Moira and Cab were able to recover their full hit points.

Quiet and Aris had a conversation over tea about the Amber Temple and the fortunes of the Tarokka Cards. Aris was unsure of where the twisting halls beneath a throne could be, but didn't think it would be in Umber Dell. Aris wondered at why Mithrakin, the Kind Raven, would allow Quiet's kin to be without flight, and hoped the kenku would find answers in the Temple of the Kind Raven.

The next day was chilly with low black clouds. The group sailed the Queensbane over Lake Omyr, fighting some of Skirovan's dragonborn skeletons and sailing through a thin scum of green slime.

Docking at the Towers of the Laughing Lords, the characters used their writ of safe passage to pass through the gnoll guards safely. They were told to seek Master Virtue in Blind Hollow if they wanted to find out more about Proctor Doviaen's quest for the Amber Temple.

Vimak led the way through Blind Hollow, a labyrinthine peat bog shrouded by a thick mist. Vimak took his time, looking out for enemies as Quiet scouted ahead.

At a natural spring, the characters encountered two strange hounds made partially from shadows. They fought the shadow mastiff and shadow alpha, who were able to turn invisible once cloaked in shadows. Though Gazu and Cab received bites, the two hounds were quickly cut down.

Quiet and Moira investigated the strange area. Quiet found the shadows here to be particularly thick. Moira discovered black shadows entwined in the sap of the plants. She captured some in a jar, and identified it as evidence of the influence of the Shadowfell, a realm between the Feywild, home of fairies and fey, and the land of the dead. The last time the group had encountered the Shadowfell had been in the Hagwood.

The group continued into the night, finally reaching the Rowan Ways, a series of rocky islands emerging from muddy water, connected by rope and plank bridges. At the first island, gnoll guards approached. Two guards were pulled into the earth by roots, and another vanished into the shadows of the trees. The final guard ran off along another bridge.

Quiet leapt onto the crumbling remains of a fortress wall and peered into the trees. In the torchlight, he saw the shape of a woman covered in the grey bark of the pines. Quiet threw his torch at the creature!

24 - 25 Amber Ant 1310

As the group readied their attack against the Silver Dryad, Quiet found himself victim to a hail of daggers thrown by Quicklings hidden in the trees. He survived, just barely dodging the attacks of the tiny fey.

Gazu stepped onto the island, and too fell victim to hidden Quicklings. Gazu quickly turned invisible and pleaded with the Silver Dryad to let the group have safe passage. The dryad demanded a price of valuables. The group tried to pay with their mundane weapons, but this offering of "sticks and knives" only made the Silver Dryad angrier. Gazu used his artificer magic to infuse the weapons with magical light. Moira cast light upon a javelin and added it to the pile. The Silver Dryad drew the glowing weapons into her trees and allowed the characters to pass. She warned the characters that the bond that once held the fey loyal to Granny O'gwa had been severed, and now there was no common alliance between the fey of Blind Hollow.

The characters investigated a strange stone gateway with purple sylvan sigils that Gazu identified as a Fell Gate. Quiet found a purple petal within a cracked stone bowl near the gate.

Moira led the group over an old bridge to an island with a massive tree stump. Cab discovered a small silver chest inside a hidden hollow in the stump. When he reached in to retrieve the chest, the stump awakened, biting down on his arm. Before the stump could strike at any of the characters, it was split apart by Moira's Eldritch Blasts, Quiet's arrow, and Cab's Inflict Wounds.

Inside the silver chest, the characters found a magical Shiftweave, a fabric that could be made into enchanted, shape-changing clothing, and an Everbright Lantern. Embossed on the back of the lantern was a hand holding a torch, the symbol of the Luminaires.

The characters backtracked, and followed some repaired bridges to a narrow set of islands. Two Fell Gates with yellow sigils were connected by a magical portal, somehow opened by an offering of yellow flower petals. Three Darklings, fey with cloven feet and shadowed cloaks, seemed to both covet and fear the characters' light sources. The Darklings threw daggers at the characters, then hid behind rocks and shadows.

The characters fought back. Moira cast Hideous Laughter on one Darkling, and Gazu catapulted a torch at it. As the Darkling died, it exploded into blinding light. Quiet leapt across the muddy waters and shot a Darkling with his shortbow. The final Darkling threw a dagger at Moira through the yellow Fell Gate, then hid within some crumbling ruins. Cab and Moira followed through the portal, but it was Gazu's steamroller that finished off the final fey.

On the other side of the portal, the characters found a bush on which purple flowers grew. Quiet harvested a few. Rather than continuing across a broken bridge or returning to the purple Fell Gate, the characters rested for the night. From within Moira's Tiny Hut spell, Quiet saw the Silver Dryad emerge from a tree and search for the characters. However, their rest was not interrupted.

In the morning, it was frigid and morose with low black clouds and a strong wind. Quiet leapt across the broken bridge, dragging Cab with him. Moira and Gazu trudged through the mud. The characters came to the foot of a series of hills and the trailhead of a long, winding path up into the mountains. A dead gnoll lay in a mud puddle. Cab discovered the gnoll had died of exposure to the cold. In its paws the gnoll held a map of Umber Dell, showing the path to the Amber Temple.

On the other side of a line of tall pine trees, the characters found the burial statue of Boros, Watcher of the Blood Stars. When Cab cast Speak with the Dead, the tortle's spirit cried out, "The Dark Powers! The Dark Powers are inside my mind! The Dark Powers shall never know my secrets! Flee! Flee! I cannot control my thoughts!"

Three gems sitting in the tortle's three eye sockets suddenly transformed into spined devils that flew about, cackling and launching gem spikes at the characters!

25 Amber Ant 1310

The group continued their fight against the three spined devils. Moira sent a volley of Eldritch Blasts, and Vimak sent Wyvern Steel flying into the air. In response, the spined devils flew out over the thick mud of the peat bog.

Quiet suddenly volleyed from a tree and grappled one of the small devils, pulling it into the mud. Vimak followed and struck true with his Berserker Axe. The devil exploded in light, reverting to a gem, which Vimak grabbed.

Meanwhile, one of the spined devils delivered a series of devastating attacks at Moira with its barbs. She was hit in the eye, upper back, and side. Moira drank one of Gazu's healing potions, then struck down one of the devils with her Eldritch Blast. Vimak recovered the gem.

Finally, Quiet, hidden behind Vimak's back, shot down the final spined devil with his bow. Vimak collected the final gem.

The characters returned to the burial statue of Boros, Watcher of the Blood Stars. Vimak placed the gems back in the tortle's three eye sockets. Boros's sanity had returned, and the characters asked a series of questions.

Cab asked about the final piece of the Skywatcher's Calling ritual. They learned how to use a special instrument called the Caller's Flute to call a fallen star to a location of choice in the valley.

Quiet asked about the Amber Temple. He learned that the Amber Temple is a prison built from the amber gems of a fallen star. Imprisoned within are the dark powers the Luminaires fought against when freeing the valley from the Shadowfell.

Quiet also learned that people seek the Amber Temple because the Dark Powers offer their gifts, which people accept at the price of their soul.

Vimak asked about the gems and the Skywatcher's three eyes. Boros revealed that some of the Shadowfell remains in the blood of the tortles of the valley. When a tortle is born with a third eye hidden behind the scales of the forehead, they have great power gifted by the remaining influence of the Shadowfell. All the Skywatchers of the valley had been born with the third eye. Boros had learned to amplify his power through these gems, and he was buried with the gems to protect the valley from the evil powers still remaining in the Amber Temple.

Quiet then asked how to prevent people from accessing the power of the Amber Temple. They were told to kill Exethanter, the master scholar of the Amber Temple, who had been there for hundreds of years.

Though Moira wanted to explore more of the Rowan Ways, the group decided to head back to the Omyrian Fortress in order to enact the ritual of the Skywatcher's Calling. However, they paused at the bridge to the Silver Dryad's island.

Moira sent her familiar Pin forward to search out danger. Pin sensed Quicklings hiding in the trees. Pin placed some of the purple flower petals on the stone next to the purple Fell Gate. When the portal opened, Pin explored further. The weasel explored an island with a crumbled stone lodge, and another island with a fortress manned by gnoll guards and tortle slaves.

Finally, the group decided to try and charge through the island of the Silver Dryad and flee out of the Rowan Ways. As the group crossed over the bridge, they were met by Quicklings and the Silver Dryad. The Quicklings threw a volley of daggers at Moira and Vimak. Moira's Mirror Image duplicates took most of the blows, and Vimak was able to easily deflect the tiny daggers off his armor. However, the Silver Dryad appeared, and charmed Vimak into following Will-o-Wisps taking the form of Dawnbreaker out into the mud of the bog.

Quiet attempted to hide in the mud, but was attacked by a Quickling and took a painful wound to his left shoulder. In return he leapt from the mud into the boughs of a pine tree and struck the Quickling dead.

Moira hypnotized two Quicklings, then sent two Eldritch Blasts straight at the Silver Dryad's heart, killing her.

Vimak awoke from his charm, and struck down another Quickling with his Berserker Axe.

Free from the threat of the Dryad, the group continued to run towards the far bridge.

25 - 26 Amber Ant 1310

The characters continued to combat the remaining Quicklings. Despite a profusion of daggers thrown by the fey, Moira was able to blast a Quickling with her eldritch power, and Vimak finished off the last one with his axe.

Quiet investigated a hollow in one of the Silver Dryad's trees, and found an old leather bag with gold and a spinel inside.

Vimak led the group back through Blind Hollow, moving as quickly as possible. As they neared the edge of the peat bog, they heard the screams of gnolls. The group saw gnolls and tortle slaves at the tops of three wooden towers, being attacked by a swarm of stirges and a massive gorgon elk. The elk had stones and gems embedded in its thick hide, and quartz veined throughout its antlers. Its foul breath had already turned a gnoll and tortle to stone.

Vimak charged in, clashing with the elk. Meanwhile, Quiet leapt from tree to tower and started fighting the gnolls. Moira and Quiet were attacked by stirges, and fought off the blood-sucking critters. Gazu crept forward and used his Catapult spell to hurl a log at the elk, greatly injuring it.

The gorgon elk breathed out a petrifying mist. Vimak and Moira resisted its effects, but Gazu found himself slowly turning to stone.

Soon enough, Cab had burned away the stirges with his divine might, and Moira and Quiet had each struck a gnoll from the tower. One of the tortle slaves grabbed a gnoll's longbow and started shooting at the elk and stirges. Gazu resisted the petrification, then drank down a potion of Enlarge and leapt upon the gorgon elk's back! He was thrown off, but while the elk was distracted Vimak struck true, cutting through the creature's back legs.

The group took some time to gather up the gems and antlers that had fallen from the gorgon elk. The tortle warrior introduced herself as K'Tolka, niece of Tolzin from Amberdell, and a member of the Omyrian Order.

As the characters made their way back to the Queensbane, they saw the gnolls of the Towers of the Laughing Lords preparing tortle slaves for a parade. They found out that the upcoming weekend would be the celebration of the Queen's Fast, when everyone in Umber Dell would take time off from labor. The gnolls would be parading the tortle slaves, dressed in fine fabrics and flowers, through the streets of Vetch to show how well they were treated.

Back in the Queensbane, Cab spotted some skeletal serpents in the waters of Lake Omyr, but K'Tolka was able to lead the boat through a shortcut between two rocks.

Back in the Omyrian Fortress, the group told Skywatcher Aris of their adventures. He explained what would occur in the ritual of the Skywatcher's Calling. The characters' spirits would travel to the Ethereal Realm. They would use instruments to name and call down a star, but would face danger from shades summoned from the Queen's Veil.

The characters rested overnight, and woke up to a day that was damp and chill with high white clouds and a strong wind.

They gathered around the central cistern of the Omyrian Fortress. Each character took up an instrument, and Cab played the Finis Horn to start the ritual.

The characters found themselves standing tall above the entire Valley of the Fallen Stars. Quiet started playing the Earth Drum, inspiring the other characters in their own efforts. Vimak performed great athletic feats while playing the Toll of the Sun and Stars, unlocking their ability to summon a star within three months. Moira played the Sitar of Naming with great aptitude, and soon had named and called a Horizon Star. As Gazu played the Caller's Flute, recalling the flutes played in his religious upbringing, he found himself attacked by a Spectral Hunter. He turned invisible, but lost focus on the Radiant Beacon.

Meanwhile, Cab used Sacred Flames to strike down the shades threatening his companions. Though the Finis Horn was in his grasp, he did not yet end the ritual.

26 Amber Ant - 3 Copper Beetle, 1310

The ritual of the Skywatcher's Call continued.

As the Spectral Hunters returned to the Ethereal Valley, one raised its horn and blew into it, causing a chaotic staccato that confused and cursed the True Stars. The characters made efforts to free the star from the curse, but not before a struck Shadewing caused an ember crystal to grow over the Moonstone.

Gazu instead raised a Radiant Beacon over Umber Dell. Quiet quickly played the Earth Drum, gaining knowledge from Skywatcher Aris in order to free the True Star from its curse. Moira played the Sitar of Naming, keeping the attention of a Horizon Star. Vimak and Cab struck the Toll of the Sun and Stars, setting the date of the star's fall to one week. Finally, Vimak blew into the Finis Horn, ending the ritual.

Before they returned to the Mortal Realm, the characters received a vision of the constellation of the Buried Tree. They were imbued with the magic of the stars, and gained 6th Level.

The characters decided to spend some downtime before the Horizon Star fell to Umber Dell.

Moira and Vimak returned to Rothvel. There, they found the town a little changed. Many of the old rules were no longer being enforced by Chamberlain Durst. Tortles were now welcome into the main village, and Leona Flynt, head of the Ardent Hunters, had closed off the Rothwood.

Moira worked in her Temple to the Coatl, which was very popular with the tortles. Meanwhile, she attempted to find a magic item merchant. Eventually she attracted the attentions of a merchant named Fendrel de Bolbec. Unfortunately, Fendrel only had an Elixer of Health to sell. Moira was not interested.

Vimak participated in pit fights organized by the Ardent Hunters. He faced off against opponents strong, quick, and stubborn, but bested them all.

Quiet spent the week spying inside the Citadel of Eternal Sorrows. He overheard Proctor Doviaen speaking about the Gifts of the Dark Powers in the Amber Temple. The Dark Powers, trapped inside amber sarcophagi, could give individuals powers over disease, lightning, and death, but left their mark upon the body of the gift receiver.

With guidance from Cab's god Arawan, Quiet was able to break into the living quarters of the gnolls guarding the citadel. He raided the quarters of the gnoll Pious, and was able to steal 200 gold pieces.

Gazu worked in the Omyrian Fortress. He used his woodworking tools to construct a shield, then crafted a number of scrolls.

During the week, a parade was held in the cobblestone streets of Vetch. The tortle slaves were marched in costumes of fine linens and flowers.

At the end of the week, on a frigid evening, the characters gathered back at the Omyrian Fortress. This evening, the Horizon Star would fall to Umber Dell.

3 Copper Beetle, 1310

In the Queensbane outside the Omyrian Fortress, the group witnessed the Horizon Star plummeting towards the valley. Suddenly a giant dragon turtle- Dorodorodorandel in his physical form- burst from the lake and caught the star in his beak. He delivered the fallen star to Kolcha's boat, but started to lose power and consciousness. The Queen's Veil- the ever-present layer of clouds and fog blocking the stars- prevented him from fully returning to the valley.

Before he left, the characters asked Dorodorodorandel a few questions. When asked about treasure, the giant turtle said he sensed gold in the Amber Temple. When asked about how to free the tortles, he said revealing the stars and teaching them the old ways were needed. When asked about how to break the Moonstone, he said that only the Dark Powers- his brothers and sisters trapped in the Amber Temple- could grant that power.

Back in the Omyrian Fortress, the group made plans for what magic items to construct out of the void gems of the horizon star.

Gazu, disappointed at the size of the fallen star, asked Aris why it wasn't as big as the Moonstone. Aris explained that the Moonstone and the Ember Heart both fell long before the Luminaires taught the tortles how to call down Fallen Stars.

Aris also warned the group that the star would attract the attention of their enemies, including Proctor Doviaen and Queen Nostraya. Luckily, that weekend was a festival known as the Blessed Nights of Bitterroot outside the Ember Keep. Aris did not think Nostraya would want to leave the sacrifices that farmers would be making at the gate of her castle.

The group decided to strike out that night to try and kill the Revered Oriandos. Quiet and K'Tolka, an Omyrian Warrior freed from Blind Hollow, sailed down to Vetch as the rest of the group fetched Skirovan from the Howling Grounds.

Quiet and K'Tolka saw gnoll guards running around, trying to drive tortle slaves awoken by the Fallen Star back into their quarters. Quiet conspired with some slaves to set a fire when his friends arrived. Seeing the Queensbane, Quiet dipped an arrow in the perfume he had stolen from Proctor Doviaen and sent it over the manors. This drove the gnolls, including Pious, mad with fear that their master was in danger.

The group snuck towards the Citadel of Eternal Sorrows. Skirovan refused to be tied up, and instead polymorphed himself into a frog.

Inside the citadel, Proctor Doviaen stood at the pulpit. He accused the characters of summoning the Fallen Star. While Quiet snuck up into the rafters, Gazu confused Doviaen with lies, claiming to not know what is happening. Doviaen, still driven to suspicion by his master's clairvoyance, decided to accompany the group up to Oriandos' chamber, along with the gnoll Devout.

Upstairs, Gazu angered Doviaen when he tried to offer the priest to Oriandos as a sacrifice. Doviaen sent Devout after Gazu, and Skirovan hopped out of Devout's pocket (having been placed there by Quiet) and transformed back into a gnome.

Combat began!

Cab cast Bane on the Ooze Folk and Proctor Doviaen, cursing their attacks. Doviaen used his voice to confuse Gazu, then turned invisible. Quiet shot Devout in the knee, greatly injuring him. The Ooze Folk crept closer, some puddling under the gap beneath the glass walls.

As Moira and Gazu attempted to attack Devout with damaging spells, the gnoll shot a magic bolt into the stairwell, filling it with shards of ice. Vimak cleaved through an Ooze Folk and went chasing after the gnoll.

Skirovan cast a bead of fire at the Revered Oriandos, who shed his burning clothes to reveal his true form: a massive, vampiric ooze. Oriandos sent out a cloud of poisonous spores, which covered many of the characters.

Cab fled the cloud and healed himself, and Quiet and K'Tolka cut down an Ooze Folk who had followed them down into the stairwell. Doviaen sent out a magic shout that shattered around Moira, Gazu, and Skirovan, and shattered a glass wall.

The glass prison was all in chaos as the battle raged.

3 Copper Beetle, 1310

Combat continued against the Revered Oriandos and his forces. Within the effects of the Cloudkill spell, the gnoll Devout succumbed to the damaging poison, but Moira managed to teleport away through a casting of Misty Step. Vimak and Quiet struck at the Ooze Folk.

Oriandos began drinking potions from around his chambers, healing himself.

Meanwhile, Gazu and Skirovan attacked Proctor Doviaen. The priest of the Citadel of Eternal Sorrows cast more damaging Shatter spells as Oriandos cast a spell of Confusion on Vimak. However, Vimak was able to overcome the Confusion, charged Doviaen, and decapitated him.

Quiet leapt upon one of Oriandos' tables, scattering the jars and potions from its surface. The Omyrian Warrior K'Tolka charged Oriandos and struck him with her sword, but a burst of acid burned her face, knocking her down.

Cab and Moira started bombarding Oriandos with radiant flames, which boiled away at his oozing flesh. Oriandos used a spell of Fear to frighten away Moira and Skirovan, but was then struck by Cab's Guardians of Faith. Oriandos called to the Dark Powers to gift him with might. Dark energies swirled within his translucent body, and he grew even larger.

As Gazu launched various objects, including a bust of Queen Nostraya, at Oriandos. Cab stabilized K'Tolka, but was then grappled by Oriandos. As the life was squeezed from him, he started taking mortal wounds.

Vimak ran over and pulled Cab from Oriandos' grasp. Oriandos began lobbing acid at the two, following them towards the stairwell.

Moira covered her face with a rotting pillow cloth and freed herself from the effects of the Fear spell. She returned to the fight as Quiet sprung towards Oriandos and struck with his rapier, fearless of the resulting acid bursts.

Oriandos sent out oozing tentacles to grapple Cab. Just in time, Gazu cast Catapult on a large bottle, sending it hurling towards Oriandos' face. It sunk into his eye socket, and his body exploded into a puddle of goo.

Skirovan pointed out the still-beating heart, which Vimak cut in two with his greataxe.

Almost immediately, Skirovan started looking over and organizing Oriandos' laboratory. As he made mention of moving in and becoming a new master of the Citadel of Eternal Sorrows, the characters started to discuss the fate of the gnome necromancer.

Finally, K'tolka crushed Oriandos' skull underfoot, and declared that the Tortles were finally free.

3 - 4 Copper Beetle, 1310

As Skirovan organized the alchemical equipment and vials of potions in Oriandos' lab, the characters searched about the atrium.

On Doviaen's body, Vimak found a Wand of Smiles. In Oriandos' bedroom, Moira and Gazu uncovered a magical Grasping Chain, some ritual scrolls, and Perfume of Bewitching. The hyena body of Devout held four magic crossbow bolts and three vials of a spellcaster's drug called Tenderhook.

Quiet discovered a lemure, a malformed demon that had been residing in the gnoll body of Devout. Talking to the lemure, he discovered that Doviaen had forced the imported hyenas to consume demon flesh, turning them into gnolls. Devout the Lemure did not want to go back to hell, so he agreed to work with the characters. Cab cast Revivify to bring Proctor Doviaen back to life, then Quiet fed him the demon's body. The demon Devout now inhabited the form of Proctor Doviaen. He set out to calm the gnolls and make sure no word got out of the Revered Oriandos' demise.

The group then negotiated with Skirovan, and agreed to let the gnome have the alchemical lab in the atrium if he later helped them attack Queen Nostraya.

Before they left, Quiet found some books on arcana, medicine, and oozes, as well as Oriandos' notes on the Amber Temple. He learned that the mysterious Exantheter is an ancient kenku who is a scholar of the Dark Powers. For the last few hundred years he has resided at the Amber Temple. He also learned that when the Dread came to the Valley, Queen Nostraya went to the Amber Temple to find out how to fight it back. She was given the power to break the Ember Heart, a massive red fallen star at the center of the Ember Keep. Breaking the Ember Heart gave Nostraya great power, but at the cost of her humanity.

That night, Moira and Cab celebrated the falling of the Horizon Star with the tortles of Aldertree. Quiet snuck after Proctor Devout, making sure he kept to his word.

The next day, Vimak placed an order for Kolcha to make him a Cloak of Displacement. Then the characters sailed off through the wind and rain to Rothvel.

Along the way, near a partial dam, the characters encountered mud mephits forcing fish up onto the bank. The mephits covered Moira with sticky mud and started walloping on her with their fists. But the characters worked together to save their friend and destroy the mephits.

In Rothvel, the characters made their way to Madam Zolenka's hovel. She performed another Tarokka Card reading, revealing two prophesies:

When the time comes to slay the Devil Queen, hurry thee to the Ember Keep, and seek a den decorated with the skulls and skins of slain beasts. Be wary, warriors; Nostraya will be wearing the face of another.

In a gray stone building where warriors look over the valley and sigh awaits a weapon feared by the she-devil, though through ill luck it lies in the hands of another.

The characters agreed to rest for a week, though this upset Quiet who wished to continue their momentum in freeing the tortles of the Valley. Quiet and Gazu sailed back to Umber Dell while Cab, Moira, and Vimak stayed in Rothvel.

The weekend passed, and as Cab walked towards the temple he and Moira had established, a thick fog gathered around him. From the fog stepped his unholy double, Egabbac.

4 - 12 Copper Beetle, 1310

The characters spent a week split between Umber Dell and Rothvel.

In Umber Dell, Quiet sought out ways to cause unrest among the gnolls and the wealthy townsfolk of Vetch. He began by using subterfuge and sleight of hand to make the Flower Market Merchants distrust the gnolls delivering their goods.

Meanwhile, Moira started mobilizing a cell of revolutionary tortles at her temple in Rothvel. Using her collection of books, she was able to teach a group of ten tortles to be revolutionary warriors, and sent them out to teach others. Without her intention, rumors soon spread that Moira was part of a group of indestructible individuals, born of the fallen star recently seen above the valley.

Vimak took the week to train two giant pigs to accept riders and be calm in battle. Vimak was able to speak to the pigs directly through his attunement with the natural world. He discovered that Moira's pig, Argyle, liked to wear fancy hats, while his own pig, Hammertime, enjoyed the taste of ale.

Cab led funerary services in his section of the Black Candle Temple. When walking home after a service, he discovered the market around him was empty of people, and filled instead with a thick, invading fog. From the fog stepped Egabbac, Cab's evil double. Egabbac engaged in combat with Cab, but was frightened away by the cleric's Turn Undead. From the mists stepped Queen Nostraya. She offered a job to Cab, calling him by his true name. Nostraya claimed that in payment for this job, she would forever leave the valley.

On that same day, Moira was approached by a mysterious masked figure, who offered her magic items for sale. Instead, it was Birrik. He had been hired to kill Moira. As they fought, Birrik continually hid in the market stalls, which Moira blasted away one by one. Finally, as Birrik was gravely injured by a casting of Sacred Flame, Queen Nostraya appeared on a rooftop and polymorphed the tiefling into a bat. Moira joined Nostraya on the rooftop, and heard her offer of a job. In return, Queen Nostraya would help Moira kill her former boss, the bone devil Lord Obsidikis.

Amongst the pig farms of Rothvel, Vimak continued to train his warhogs. He noticed that the farmhouse nearby was eerily quiet, and was startled to see Trout, now a vampire, emerge. Trout fought Vimak, and drank of his blood, but Vimak gravely injured his former friend in a flurry of sword and axe strikes. Trout skittered away and climbed a nearby building. Vimak followed, and found on the other side Queen Nostraya. She offered Vimak one free strike against her, but he refused. As he leapt back down to train his pigs, Trout appeared once more, telling Vimak that Queen Nostraya had a job for him, and was willing to open her vault of magic weapons.

Back in Umber Dell, Quiet leapt from rooftop to rooftop in the Flower Market, making his way to the Citadel of Eternal Sorrows. Suddenly he was surrounded by Soldiers of the Storm, the knights who had slain his brothers and sisters in their roost. The knights had silver weapons and wore an emblem of a winged serpent intertwined with a storm cloud. The knights demanded to know the location of Skywatcher Aris, and told Quiet they would bring him to surviving kenku. Quiet refused to talk, and the knights suddenly vanished. It turned out to be the work of a gnome illusionist, who told Quiet that Nostraya was seeking his employment again, and that she did, in fact, know where surviving kenku were.

Quiet went on to forge texts to make the gnolls of the Citadel of Eternal Sorrows think that Queen Nostraya was hiding power from them. He then ruined Madam White's reputation by repeatedly sneaking in and making a mess of her rooms and grounds. By the time Quiet left Umber Dell, Vetch was in chaos. The fires of revolution would continue to be stoked by a fanatic group of tortle slaves.

The group gathered once more at the Marksman in Rothvel, and traded stories of the week. Though Quiet urged the group to seek out Queen Nostraya before she was driven to take further steps, Vimak was adamant in heading to Grayview Abbey next. The adventurers set out in the Queensbane towards the western mountains.

12 - 13 Copper Beetle, 1310

The characters sailed up the Wyrmfane river aboard the Queensbane.

As the boat neared a small encampment, a huge black dragon suddenly flew down from the cloudy skies. The dragon proclaimed itself Morovahn, and demanded a tribute of 200 gold per character.

The characters attempted to negotiate, refusing to give up their boat as tribute. Instead, they tossed 500 gold and an Elven Cloak made by Gazu to the shore.

While sailing away, Quiet spotted a familiar gnome illusionist in the camp tent. However, the group decided to continue upstream.

At the foot of the mountains, Vimak and Quiet hid the Queensbane and their two untamed pigs beneath some brush. Vimak led the group up into the mountains.

As they climbed, they found the brush unnaturally thick, with thorns and vines grasping at their legs. The journey would take two days instead of one.

The characters approached a bridge crossing a gap, where a group of black-scaled kobolds were trapping a large deer as tribute to Morovahn. The kobolds demanded a tribute of their own, but the group scared them away. The kobolds warned the group to not approach the Bones of Orzamora, where they had a village, without a proper offering.

The characters started climbing a steep switchback trail. Suddenly a huge black dragon flew down from the clouds. The dragon proclaimed himself Morovahn, and demanded a tribute of 500 gold per character.

Realizing they had been tricked at the river, the characters tried once more to negotiate. They found out that Morovahn had no allegiance to Queen Nostraya, but enjoyed the business she brought through her exiles and refugees. When the group brought up the fact that they had killed both Mog the Mighty and Baron Rothvel, the two knights who had slain the dragon's mother, Morovahn seemed delighted. He accepted the deaths as tribute for this journey.

The next day, the characters encountered a scholar of Grayview Abbey, a halfling herbalist named Tekla. She answered some questions about the history and economy of the Abbey, which was founded by one of the Luminaires called the Abbot. For a long time the Abbey had been a place of study, but during the Dread a curse had fallen over the place. Now much of the knowledge was locked away amongst terrible creatures, kept at bay only by the power of a legendary sword called the Sun Blade.

As the characters approached the gates of Grayview Abbey and Sunspire, the fortress within, they passed by the cave entrance to Morovahn's Vault and the kobold village built into the bones of Orzamora. Outside the gates of Grayview Abbey, they found a camp of exiles. It seemed that no one was being let into the fortress.

Amongst the exiles was Skywatcher Volno, a tortle priest the characters had met before seeking solace in Ravenwood Court. Volno told Vimak of how Queen Nostraya had come to Ravenwood Court, burned down the tavern, and started slaying and consuming guests inside the Manor. Volno fled, forced to leave behind his niece, and came instead to Grayview Abbey.

The characters also met Booker, the librarian of Grayview Abbey. Like the guards at the gate, he seemed to be missing memories. The characters helped him remember that Udgar Vance, one of the Gray Wardens, had come to him with a problem, and needed the Sun Blade. Booker gave Vance the sun blade, and was then exiled from Grayview Abbey.

Booker also accused the Gray Wardens of worshipping false gods. According to Booker, the Luminaires were merely mortals who also had flaws and sins, and the stars they called down were actually pieces of other worlds. He even said some stars contained new peoples, such as the kenku, or even beings who called themselves gods.

Quiet was able to find out the name of one of the guards, and he and Cab used it to get the guards to open the gate. However, Moira was hesitant to enter a place that seemed to be eating away the memories of those who lived there. Instead, the group went up to Hawthorne, Cab's hermitage.

In Hawthorne, the characters found the fields of cabbage, carrots, and potatoes destroyed, the soil dug up, and strange skull-shaped seeds scattered throughout. Father Wolfgang, Cab's mentor, told them that giant boars ridden by fey creatures were arriving at night and destroying the crops.

The characters set a trap! Gazu and Vimak dug a pit, which Quiet lined with spikes. Moira created the illusion of cabbages on top, while Cab set out a cabbage filled with poisoned berries.

The characters hid, and late that night they started to hear the snorts and cries of the fey riding the giant boars!

13 Copper Beetle, 1310

Hiding in the cabbage field of Hawthorne, the characters sprung their trap on the raiding boars and meenlocks!

From their hiding spots, the characters watched as one boar ate the poisoned cabbage, and another fell into the spiked pit.

Vimak started shooting at the meenlock from the garden shed. Moira maintained concentration on her magic fortress, from which Cab and Gazu cast spells. Quiet leapt about the battlefield, hiding in bushes and delivering devastating strikes.

Soon, two of the meenlocks were struck down. Vimak rushed over to the pit and tried to prevent the boar from climbing out. Gazu leapt upon the back of another boar and attempted to tame it.

Moira dropped her fortress and cast Hypnotic Pattern, incapacitating a boar, a meenlock, and Vimak. Cab destroyed another boar with his Inflict Wounds spell.

The two remaining meenlock, seeing their foes fall, pulled a cloak of darkness around themselves and vanished.

Gazu started feeding the remaining boar hay as Quiet investigated the fallen meenlocks. In a small leather sack he found the same skull-shaped acorns he had seen planted in the fields. However, the meenlocks seemed to be made of flesh and bone, not the plant material he had found growing from the skull seeds.

Vimak used his Speak with Animals ability to ask the boar questions. The boar, named Greenswine, revealed that she and the other boar had answered the call of a dryad named Thornbirch. The dryad had recently moved to the mountains, and was using the fields of Hawthorne to grow guardians. Greenswine agreed to lead the characters to Thornbirch if they freed her children, which had been taken to a cave beneath the dryad's tree.

Greenswine, with Gazu sitting on top, led the characters further up the mountain, to where the forest was no longer so thick with grasping vines and brush. In a clearing, they saw large stones covered with faded runes. A thorny tree grew over the stones, guarded by two more meenlocks riding boars, and three scarecrows made entirely of plant-like materials.

Gazu approached the tree and started asking questions. He found out that the dryad Thornbirch had come from the Hagwood. Now free of Granny O'gwa's control, she wished to start her own family here in the mountains. She was drawn here because of an ancient power that had awoken beneath Grayview Abbey.

At the mention of this ancient power, Moira felt the presence of her patron the Coatl. It seemed that something undead had awoken beneath the Abbey, and Moira wanted to know more.

Just then, a coterie of kobolds, led by a sorceress, attacked from the forest, attempting to burn down Thornbirch's tree. The dryad told Moira that she would only say more if the tiefling fought against the kobolds.

Not all the group started the battle likeminded. Vimak shot a crossbow bolt at one of the meenlock. However, the goliath was soon attacked by the scarecrows, who paralyzed him with their fearful gaze. The meenlock had its revenge, charging the paralyzed Vimak and goring him repeatedly.

Meanwhile, Quiet leapt through the trees and started shooting down kobolds. Moira cast Hypnotic Pattern again, successfully hypnotizing most of the kobolds. Unfortunately, two drake mounts were not hypnotized, and woke their riders. One of the riders threw a flask of oil at Thornbirch's tree, but was shot down by Quiet before he could set it aflame.

Moira managed to persuade Thornbirch to call back her meenlocks and scarecrows, which were swarming Gazu, Vimak, and Cab. The dryad agreed, then charmed the kobold sorceress and convinced her to retreat. Quiet and Moira struck out, successfully killing the remaining kobolds before they could escape back to the forest.

13 - 14 Copper Beetle, 1310

With the battle against the kobolds won, the dryad Thornbirch answered Moira's questions. The group learned that a mind long dead had reawoken beneath Grayview Abbey, and that this powerful undead worshipped a master not from this world. The dryad also told them that the Standing Stones could be used as a location for the spell Teleportation Circle. As long as she kept her hearth tree at the stones, no other fey creatures (such as Granny O'gwa) could follow her to the mountains.

The group negotiated with the dryad, and agreed to give her half of the fields of Hawthorne for two weeks so that she could grow enough scarecrows to keep her safe from the kobolds. They also freed the piglets of the giant boar Greenswine.

Returning to Hawthorne, the characters found Father Wolfgang sitting up late at a table in the great hall, drinking medicinal tea and looking sickly. He explained that Madame Zolenka had foretold his death this year, and he decided to end his own life peacefully rather than await a violent or painful death. He made Cab promise to come back and run the hermitage after he destroyed Queen Nostraya.

The next morning, which was damp and chilly with a thick fog, the characters returned to Grayview Abbey. Inside the courtyard, they found three knights practicing combat maneuvers. However, like the rest of the Gray Wardens, they seemed to be missing their memories. Instead, Vimak talked with their tame wolf, Goodboy. He told Vimak that his "pack" of knights had returned to the Abbey a few weeks ago to find everyone afflicted with this curse. At first the wolf's companions were not affected, but as time passed they also started to lose their memories.

Meanwhile, Quiet climbed the tower of the Sunspire in order to find the source of a terrible howling sound. In a stone cell at the top of the tower he found Dawnbreaker, a female goliath warrior, cursed with vampirism and driven mad. Vimak recalled that ten years ago, Dawnbreaker had been killed and cursed by the vampire Baron Rothvel, and that the Gray Wardens had rescued her and helped her keep control of her mind.

Moira decided to investigate the Sun Blade Altar, the only area of the Abbey not bricked up. Inside she found a weapon missing from the altar. She opened a door to find two strange creatures: robed figures with leathery spiked skin and a single eye each, searching through a small bedroom. A dog-like creature with the body of a brain sat on a table.

The one-eyed creatures, known as Nothics, looked into Moira's mind and sensed her hostility towards undead. They cried out, "She wishes to kill the master!" and attacked her. Moira was able to escape the Nothics and their Intellect Devourer and run outside.

Together, the group returned to the Sun Blade Altar. The Nothics attempted to ambush them, but Moira's Shatter spell and Vimak's greataxe quickly eliminated one Nothic and the Intellect Devourer. The other Nothic, calling himself only Eighteenth, fell to the ground and pleaded for his life.

The characters learned that the Nothics were scholars who followed a mysterious master knows as the Abbot. Gazu recalled that the Abbot was a legendary figure, one of the Luminaires who had fought against the Shadowfell long ago. The Nothic said that the Abbot was seeking memories, and so he was being brought journals and diaries from the Abbey. The journals were being fed to something called the Hungry One, which then distributed the memories to all the Abbot's servants.

Eighteenth encouraged the characters to go through a secret door at the back of a fireplace. When the characters hesitated, Eighteenth ran through, barely escaping Wyvern Steel.

The characters explored a little more. In the bedroom where the Nothics had been, Quiet found a large, beautifully bound tome called The Abbot (Volume 2): The Abbot is a Gardener of Souls.

Vimak, meanwhile, started to climb a staircase. As he grew closer to a door at the top, he and the other characters could sense foreign thoughts intruding on their minds. The thoughts seemed to be historic records, or the writings of Booker the librarian.

Vimak opened the door to a ruined library. Amidst the broken shelves and piles of books was a large creature with a brain-like body, three snaking tentacles, and a huge toothy mouth. Somehow the creature's tentacles were drawing knowledge from the books.

Quiet ran into the room and leapt through a broken skylight. On the roof, however, he saw two grells, brain-like creatures with sharp beaks, floating above a mass of thin, barbed tentacles. Quiet leapt back down into the room and hid in the hallway.

Vimak charged in and struck the Hungry One with his axe, timing the blow with Cab's Inflict Wounds. However, the Hungry One bit Vimak with its diseased jaws, and grappled Vimak with its tentacles. The grells descended from the roof and attacked the embattled Vimak. Moira ran up to her companion and cast Lesser Restoration, curing the disease.

14 Copper Beetle, 1310

The battle continued against the grells and the Hungry One. Gazu and Cab worked to protect Vimak from the attacking creatures, but he was still critically bit on the wrist. One of the grell entangled Moira in its tentacles and dragged her up to the roof.

Moira escaped through a casting of Misty Step, and Gazu destroyed the rooftop grell with a catapulted shard of glass. Down below, Vimak continued to chop into the Hungry One with his axe and flying sword. Suddenly he became paralyzed by the tentacles of the remaining grell. This grell also dragged Vimak to the roof, but was shot down by one of Moira's Eldritch Blasts.

The characters searched around the library. They found a spell scroll and a strange book whose leather cover was shaped like Booker's face. Inside, they could read the transcribed thoughts of the exiled librarian. Cab wrote into the book 'I love cabbages.'

Vimak lead the group through the secret door in the fireplace into an old storage room. As he shifted a crate out of the way, the wooden box fell apart revealing swarms of rats! The rats were handled quickly, but a swarm of cranium rats - whose minds were able to manifest magic - started casting harmful spells at the characters, confusing Vimak and Moira.

Cab cast Enhance Ability on Vimak, helping him escape the spell. The cranium rats soon fell to the spells and weapons of the characters.

Vimak found a grate in the room that led to a slime-choked pipe. Moira sent down her familiar, Pin, but the weasel was overcome by the poisonous air.

Listening at the doors of the storage room, Vimak heard a number of nothics moving about, saying, "We need to be ready for the guests!" He decided to not go through that door, and instead lead the group through a door with the carving of a muscular, winged figure.

On the other side, the characters found a blind nothic preparing a meal in a kitchen. The nothic, named 5th, was a talented chef and seemed welcoming to the characters. She said that the Abbot was resting until nightfall, and it would be a good idea to bring him gifts.

Fifth noted that other guests had come a few weeks back, but had wound up getting injured. She said they had a great surgeon, and that the guests, once healed, stuck around to help. She gestured towards two Servitors, strange small figures with three arms and two mouths who were cleaning a dining room.

When asked how many nothics, or "Illuminated" were in the old abbey, Fifth revealed that from the many dozens that used to be, only six or so remained, though there were more "below."

Vimak asked how to get below, and she coyly replied that the characters had to learn that from the words of the Abbot himself.

Moira borrowed from Quiet the book The Abbot (Volume 2): The Abbot is a Gardener of Souls. Inside, she found a quote from the Abbot, along with a history of the start of the war between the Luminaires and the Shadowfell. She also found a recipe for Sunfire Cakes.

The characters explored a few hallways, finding an old cellar and a deep well. They pushed past a door carved with plants to find a storage room for dried herbs. On one wall was an archway, beneath which was a mosaic showing plants and the words "The Abbot is a Gardener."

Finally, Vimak opened a well-worn door and found a huge hallway broken into stone cells. The hallway was a mess, filled with broken furniture, crumbling statues, and ancient remains of food. Inside were many nothics and servitors, welcoming their new guests.

14 Copper Beetle, 1310

Moira stepped forward and started asking the nothics questions about the Abbey and their mysterious master, the Abbot. As the characters helped clean and set up the priest's chambers for the Abbot's dinner, the nothics told them that the Abbot knew the secret words of Arawan. While sweeping up broken pottery, Quiet noticed that this room had been destroyed both by a battle and the ravages of time.

Suddenly 18th, a nothic the group had fought in the Sun Blade Altar, burst through a door and told his kin to attack Moira, who wished to destroy their master.

Quiet attempted to placate the nothic, but failed and was dragged away by Vimak. 18th followed.

Cab and Moira were able to calm the other nothics. However, when they learned that the group wished to return memories to the knights of Grayview Abbey, the nothics became much less welcoming. They claimed that those memories were now possessions of the Abbot.

The group left the great hall and split. Quiet and Moira investigated the mosaic, while Cab and Gazu returned to the well.

Quiet and Moira tried many ways of getting through the mosaic wall, including casting spells and writing out their life story.

Meanwhile, Gazu borrowed Vimak's Ring of Swimming and swum down into the well. It led to a large metal pipe with a strong current. Gazu would have swum further, but he began to run out of breath.

By the time Gazu and Cab returned to the mosaic, their companions had figured out the riddle of the doorway. They spread soil on the mosaic, and it immediately loosened, allowing them to pass through.

Moira led the group down a steep staircase and into an indoor garden, where plants had overgrown their pots in the magical sunlight of a crystal-laden brazier. The group gathered some vitalvine, which could be made into a healing tea.

Through another door, the group found an ancient library of botanical lore. The great bookshelves could be moved by pressing on tiles on the ground. However, one bookshelf was overgrows with a strange cerebral vine, with brain-like fruits hanging from it. When this shelf was moved, a terrible psychic wave blasted from it.

Moving the shelves, the characters found a gallery of statues of the gods of the valleys, all under the words "A god is one whom mortals worship; yet still they sit at the feet of Finality." Cab recognized this as meaning that Arawan had power over all the gods, for they too would die one day. In fact, the labels on some of the statues showed that these gods had been slain.

One of the statues had been broken into rubble. Quiet investigated it, and found it to be a statue of Arawan.

Cab walked down a short hallway that opened up into a massive two-tiered library. Small spined devils flew about, using their quills to write in open books. Most of the books were piled in the middle, where a huge otyugh had its tentacles buried in the tomes. Cab heard a multitude of voices in his head, so many that it sounded like static.

Through a door carved with a skeleton, the characters found a library where two spined devils were interviewing an allip, an undead tormented spirit. Though the devils threw out burning quills, and the allip attacked Cab with psychic claws, the enemies were soon cut down with the help of Vimak.

14 Copper Beetle, 1310

The characters searched around the Library of Anatomy.

Gazu and Vimak found a mummy from a distant land, and notes on how the body was preserved. Gazu took an opal ring from the mummy's finger.

Quiet read the notes the Spine Devils had been writing. It seemed that the allip had been the tortured spirit of a librarian who had worked in the Abbey, and had accused the Abbot of being tempted by immortality. She was exiled from the Abbey, and when she died her spirit returned.

Moira discovered that the allip had been kept in a glass jar on one of the bookshelves. She found another allip trapped in a bell jar. She also found some skulls carved from precious materials, the Memory Book of the Gray Warden named Menhir, and The Abbot (Volume 1): The Abbot is an Architect of Faith. The book detailed the Abbot's crusade to rid the valley of the evil influence of the Shadowfell.

With Quiet scouting ahead, the characters retreated back up into the Old Abbey. They were reminded by Fifth to return at nightfall as dinner guests of the Abbot.

The characters exited the Abbey. They brought Booker his Memory Book, and saw as the words vanished and Booker's memory returned. He now remembered that Udgar Vance had come to the Sun Blade Altar asking to use the Sun Blade. Booker, who had doubts about the mythology and theology of Grayview Abbey, took down the Sun Blade, which ended a protective ritual. He believed the woes of the Abbey were due to his actions.

Booker led the exiles into the Sunspire to eat after weeks of near starvation. The characters brought the Gray Warden Menhir his book. The knight suddenly remembered returning with his companions to Grayview Abbey, but the curse had already befallen his fellow warriors. As soon as they rested, Menhir and his knights suffered terrible nightmares and started losing their memories.

The characters followed Booker into the Sunspire. They found a dwarven smithy who barely remembered his job, but was able to sell them some traps and weapons. They also found a room for Surgery, which was empty of people. However, on a shelf they found The Abbot (Volume 12): The Abbot is an Unburdened Traveler. This book detailed the Abbot's return to the Sunspire, where he claimed to hear a voice teaching him much wisdom.

As night fell, the characters returned to the Old Abbey. Vimak wanted to finish exploring, so he opened the door to the hospital, only to find it guarded by an Intellect Devourer.

Moira summoned her familiar Pin in the form of an octopus. Pin swam down the old well, and followed it to a metal pipe with a strong current. The familiar passed through a few grates, and wound up in a pool in a large underground cavern. Blind nothics tended to glowing yellow crystals. Suddenly Pin felt a strange calmness and loyalty as a large tentacled creature swam towards it. The creature started asking Pin about its master...

Moira waited some time for Pin to return, then sent her familiar back to the ethereal plane. Most of the group sat down at the dining table set with delicious foods on fine silverware, though Quiet hid in the hallway.

Suddenly they heard the Abbot's voice through the doorway. Fifth retreated. The Abbot, speaking to Arawan, claimed that a fiend was in his house of worship. He came through the door, floating above the ground, holding a gem-encrusted mace in his hand and pointing at Moira.

Moira fled, avoiding Fifth and her servitors. Quiet launched a sling bullet at the Abbot as Vimak closed in with his axe. The Abbot struck back two mighty blows with his mace, but was bloodied when Gazu critically hit him with a catapulted glass.

The nothics and their servitors started gathering at the door, attempting to use their magic gaze to damage Vimak. The goliath suddenly felt a strange force attempting to push him away from the Abbot.

Moira was pursued by more servitors, who launched crossbow bolts at her with their multiple hands.

The group had found themselves split up and outnumbered in the Old Abbey.

14 Copper Beetle, 1310

Combat continued with the Abbot and his mob of strange servants.

Moira, pursued by servitors, cast Mirror Image. However, the Abbot called back the creatures to aid him in combat against Vimak. The Abbot told Vimak he had seen his memories, and suddenly polymorphed into the goliath. Quiet tried to barricade the door, but the Nothics pushed past him and swarmed into the room.

Mesmerizing patterns filled the air, and the characters started finding themselves hypnotized by spells cast by an unknown foe.

Vimak fought his mirrored self, and a lucky axe blow shook the Abbot's concentration, casting him back into his own form.

Cab called upon Arawan and cast Guardian of Faith, filling the room with radiant glowing mushrooms. The servitors and nothics filling the dining room started to burn with radiant energy.

The Abbot called Cab unworthy of Arawan's gifts, and then polymorphed into a copy of the cleric!

Meanwhile, Gazu had turned invisible after being almost critically injured by a nothic. He crawled beneath the dining table and started casting spells at the Abbot. In return, the Abbot called down a column of divine flame on Vimak, Moira, and Gazu.

Gazu escaped into the next room as the Abbot cast his own Guardian of Faith spell. Gazu cast Steamroller, striking the Abbot and breaking his concentration so that he returned to his own form.

The unknown spellcaster cursed Vimak with madness, summoning a jagged iron crown upon his head. Vimak could no longer target the Abbot, instead striking down his minions.

Quiet hid in the Abbot's room, and then leapt from a cabinet and sent out a sling bullet that slammed into the Abbot's collarbone. Just then, Vimak struck twice with his axe and once with Wyvern Steel, slicing the Abbot's head from his neck.

Shockingly, the Abbot's neck ended in a metal plate. The steel mask that fell to the ground was empty.

Some nothics attempted to flee, and Quiet was able to hunt down one, but the blind nothic Fifth escaped.

With the battle quieted, the group explored the nearby rooms. In the Abbot's room, Vimak had already smashed open a chest to find gold and gems. Vimak now opened a chest in the great hall, and recovered more gold, silver saint statues, a feather-like ring, and a small yellow stone sun.

Gazu found the Abbot's journal and a silver quill pen. The journal was filled with pages and pages of the same phrase: "I shall never die." Moira searched a bookshelf of rotting books, and found the Memory Book of a knight named Valchek.

Cab walked around with his Guardians of Faith still activated, and discovered a portrait of the Abbot was animated and had been casting spells. Vimak ran to it and cut it open with his axe.

Meanwhile, Quiet had tracked Fifth to a door with an old blood-stained handle. Vimak opened the door, revealing two Intellect Devourers and Fifth. The characters started to fight. Vimak felt his brain bit by one of the Intellect Devourers. Then, a nothic in strange articulated armor appeared, saying they must drive off the invaders. He produced a fear-inducing gas from his fingertips, infecting Vimak and Quiet with a great fear. Vimak dropped his axe and ran off through the Old Abbey!

14-15 Copper Beetle, 1310

The battle continued with the Nothic Surgeon. As Vimak and Quiet fled due to the fear-inducing gas, the Surgeon magically teleported itself and an Intellect Devourer across the Old Abbey to ambush Vimak. The Intellect Devourer psychically bit into Vimak's brain, reducing his Intelligence to 0.

As two grell floated out of the shadows of Moira's Darkness spell, Gazu cast Sanctuary, protecting Vimak's mind from being replaced by the Intellect Devourer.

One of the grell faced an onslaught of magic from Cab, then was torn apart by Quiet's mighty trap. However, the other grell managed to grapple Moira and drag her into another hallway. Moira was gravely injured, but was rescued when Gazu catapulted the head of a statue into and through the grell.

Meanwhile, the Surgeon climbed along the walls and ceiling of the hallway to spy on what was happening. Seeing his guards defeated, the Surgeon attempted to flee down the stairs into the Lost Library. Quiet surprised the Surgeon, killing the Intellect Devourer and resisting the armored nothic's attempts to charm his mind.

5th and a nothic in white robes emerged from the hall and began closing in on the remaining characters. Gazu launched another statue head at the Nothic, and Moira finished off both nothics with an effective casting of Eldritch Blast. However, Fifth had thrown out an animated knife, and Moira and the other characters had to take some time to blast down the blade.

The Surgeon ran past the stunned Vimak and down the stairs to the Lost Library. Quiet and Cab pursued.

Down the stairs, the Surgeon kept escaping from attempted grapples by Quiet. When the armored nothic fled into the Great Library, calling for the Spined Devils and Great Hunger to prepare themselves against the invaders, Quiet and Cab retreated back upstairs.

The group investigated a few more corners of the Old Abbey. Quiet poked around the Abbot's chambers, and found some sets of fine clothing, a magic orb filled with clouds, and a magic stuffed owlbear doll that spoke out words from the Abbot's books. Behind a silver mirror, Quiet discovered a locked secret door.

During the battle, Moira had heard pained voices coming from the Surgeon's room. The characters investigated, and found a kind of hospital / torture chamber, where captured Gray Wardens were being transformed into Servitors. Gazu freed the manacled knights, and Cab passed through a gate to find more prisoners, including a wizened old man.

Moira discovered some potions throughout the room, and used one to restore Vimak's lost intelligence.

Cab noticed some foul liquid leaking under a wall, and found a locked secret door that seemed to lead to a narrow hallway.

Through another hallway, Cab found a wall with a mural of a man walking along a hillside, and picked out in white tiles the words "The Abbot is an Unburdened Traveler." Cab tried putting on the Abbot's metal mask and passing through the mosaic, but the wall held fast.

Quiet urged the group to leave the Old Abbey before any more enemies found them. They exited, and in the Sunspire returned memories to the knight Valchek and the smithy Calim Marshauk.

Marshauk told Cab that Udgar Vance thought he had been bitten by Queen Nostraya and cursed with vampirism. That was why he took down the Sun Blade, to try and fight off his perceived curse. Cab did not remember Udgar being bitten during their fight with Baron Rothvel or Queen Nostraya.

Quiet led the injured knights into the Sunspire, where Booker identified the old man as Dieter, the Gray Warden surgeon.

The characters settled down to sleep. However, Moira had terrible nightmares and did not gain the benefit of the Long Rest. Futhermore, overnight she lost the memory of how she had received some old scars and her knowledge of history, Vimak lost the memory of how he got his grick-beak pauldron and how to use his disguise kit, and Cab forgot the names of animals and how to speak Celestial. They had become the latest victims of the curse of Grayview Abbey.

15 Copper Beetle, 1310

On a damp, chill morning, with thin wisps of fog beneath gray clouds, the group gathered in the Sunspire for a breakfast of porridge.

Gazu identified the various magic items the group had found in the abbey. He was able to identify an Ioun Stone of Protection, a Ring of Feather Falling, a Dreamwrought Quill, a Talking Doll, and an Orb of Time.

Moira, tired from her nightmares, decided to try and rest in Hawthorne. Quiet and Vimak went about trying to find another way into the old abbey.

Vimak threw Quiet down the cliff beneath the abbey, and behind a waterfall Quiet saw a short tunnel leading to a metal wall. Later, Vimak found out from Calim Marshauk and Booker that the shield dwarves had built elaborately engineered pipes to draw water from the spring below, but that all entrances had been blocked up when the Abbot revolted against the Gray Wardens centuries ago.

Moira was able to sleep peacefully in the hermitage. The group then met with the knight Menhir, who gave Vimak a spellwrought tattoo of Protection from Evil and Good. Menhir explained that once Udgar Vance stole the Sun Blade, Dawnbreaker started acting more bestial. It seemed as if it was the sword itself that kept Dawnbreaker's vampiric curse from controlling her mind.

Vimak led the group back into the Old Abbey. Quiet snuck into the hospital and found the Surgeon patching up the Abbot's body. Quiet leapt forward, burying a dagger between the plates of the Surgeon's armor.

Quiet bounded away and threw another dagger, which pierced the Surgeon's faceplate. In response, the armored nothic called forward his "creature," then summoned a zone of dark, writhing tentacles that engulfed Gazu and Quiet.

The characters pursued the Surgeon, even through the whispering, slurping darkness. A phase spider crawled out through a web-choked storage room to defend its master.

Gazu, invisible, launched a devastating Steamroller, which started to overheat and destroy the Surgeon's armor. Quiet took the opportunity to jam his dagger in a mechanism near the Surgeon's head, causing it to explode.

Vimak caught up just in time to slash at the phase spider with Wyvern Steel. The spider retreated back to the Ethereal Plane.

Quiet and Gazu searched the Surgeon's body and found a glass vial of mysterious powder. Vimak, while chopping up the Abbot's body, found a silver key. It opened the secret door to the Abbot's wine cellar.

Moira sent her familiar Pin to investigate, but the spider familiar was squashed by an animated broom. Vimak ran in and chopped the broom in two.

After pilfering the Abbot's wine and spirits, the group investigated the mosaic that showed the Abbot walking on a hillside, along with the phrase "The Abbot is an Unburdened Traveler." The group tried many things to get through the door, including making a path of rose petals, splashing wine against the door, and walking along a path of corpses. Finally, Vimak spread blood under the Abbot's feet, and the mosaics loosened and started floating in midair.

Behond was a steep stairwell. The group descended and found a gallery full of rusted weapons and armor. Quiet found the memory book of Vistra, one of the Gray Warden knights. As Moira searched an empty hearth, Gazu poked at a set of gnome armor. His gauntlet stuck to the metal. Suddenly the three sets of armor in the room grew long teeth, revealing themselves to be mimics in disguise!

5 Copper Beetle, 1310

A few weeks prior, as Gazu studied alchemy in the Citadel of Eternal Sorrows, Quiet lead Vimak, Moira, and Cab to Raven's Retreat, a temple to the raven god Mithrakin below his old roost.

As the group approached the temple, they saw the ruins of an old tower. Quiet recalled how his roost had been destroyed by a band of knights called the Soldiers of the Storm. They bore symbols of a coatl flying through a stormcloud.

At the ruins stood an old tree carved with that same symbol. Hanging from the tree were three cages, in which were trapped three dead kenku.

Quiet leapt forward to free the kenku, but was blasted back by a magical wind. A voice, created by the wind, called out, "Here hang spies of the Devil Queen. Their souls are cursed, as are all who abet Nostraya and her ilk."

The group tried various ways to get to the cages. Finally Moira recalled that worshippers of the Coatl often used symbols like the one on the tree to summon magic. She cast a Shatter spell, destroying the tree and rending open the cages. Quiet leapt forward again, and this time was able to gather the bodies of his former family.

On a round stone at the foundation, Vimak found a riddle carved into a stone door. He used his shadow to open the door, behind which descended a dark and narrow staircase.

Down below, the characters found Raven's Retreat, a long-abandoned temple to Mithrakin, also known as the Kind Raven, god of day, night, and language. In various rooms they found stone pedestals that could be turned to different symbols of day and night. They also found carvings that helped them understand the sigils carved into each pedestal.

While solving the puzzle, Vimak cleaved through a rusted lock. The loud noise caught the attention of four mechanical snake-like constructs, which zapped at the characters with electric blasts. Quiet, Cab, and Moira all climbed a large raven statue, but Vimak became flanked as was bit in the hip and neck.

Cab used his Spiritual Guardians to fend off the creatures, while Moira blasted at them with her eldritch bolts. Quiet managed to jam their mechanisms with his daggers, and Vimak flipped one down a pit. Soon the constructs were in pieces.

The temple was full of statues of winged kenkus, all in the acts of creation. In one room stood two massive statues of kenku warriors wielding scythes, surrounding a winged humanoid on a throne. When the pedestals were turned, the statues swung down with their weapons. After Quiet was struck by a stone scythe, Vimak figured out a way to use his javelins, then a rope to turn the pedestals.

In an old aviary, Quiet attempted to leap over a pit but was caught in midair by a poisoned vine. He ran off, and was healed by his companions.

Finally, when the pedestals were turned to the right symbols, a light was summoned atop an obelisk. Quiet placed the light upon the crown of the giant raven statue. Before their eyes, the raven god Mythrakin was summoned.

The Kind Raven proved to be a pessimistic god. He called Quiet a "creature" and seemed disgusted by the kenku. He revealed that during the war against the Shadowfell, he had joined the side of Arawan, but his children the kenku had joined the Shadowfell. In punishment, he took their wings and their creative ability.

Mythrakin also claimed that this was not the first time adventurers had come into the valley to kill Nostraya. He even said that vampires such as Rothvel and Oriandos had been defeated before, but had been returned to life. Nostraya had erased the memories of these battles. And even if Nostraya were destroyed, it would only unleash the Dark Power residing inside her, which would return the Shadowfell to the land. When Vimak asked what could destroy the Dark Power, Mythrakin replied that it could not be destroyed, only contained.

Quiet and Vimak argued on behalf of the group's chances. But it was only when Cab, as a cleric of Arawan, and Moira, as a warlock of the Coatl, stood up for Quiet that the Kind Raven's mind started to change. Mythrakin agreed to allow the group to access the power of the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind if one of them made a sacrifice. He gave the group four options...

Moira could stop worshipping the Coatl and instead have the Kind Raven become her patron.

Cab could give up his home at the hermitage and be banished from the valley once he completed his mission.

Vimak could give up all the group's gold and valuables.

Or Quiet could forever give up his dream of flying, and never fly through magic or other means.

Each of the characters stepped up, willing to make a sacrifice. But Moira spoke out first, commanding the others to step back. She sacrificed the worship of her god, and agreed to take on Mythrakin as her patron.

The giant raven took up the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind in his beak, breaking its restrictions. Then he pecked hard at Moira's forehead, and vanished.

15 Copper Beetle, 1310

Gazu found himself grappled by the mimic armor. As a second mimic closed in on the gnome, a rust monster scurried out from the empty fireplace and followed the scent of Gazu's metal shield and armor.

Cab and Moira tried to help their friend, but Moira found herself pursued by another mimic. Gazu was bitten terribly by a mimic, which was then blasted apart by Moira. Cab, too, became grappled by a mimic. He summoned Spiritual Guardians, which started burning away at the aberrations with radiant flames.

Eventually the companions were able to defeat the mimics and rust monster, but not before Gazu's scale mail suffered rusting damage.

Through a door marked with a golden stag skull, the characters found an altar to Arawan. An old dusty tome taught them how to use the Sun Blade to pacify the evil of a place, and how to use a golden orb in the room to communicate once a day with Arawan. Gazu asked Arawan how to defeat the Great Hunger, and he was shown two visions: lightning striking a fat toad, and the Great Hunger's mouth filled with memory books.

Back in the War Gallery, Moira and Quiet searched in a pile of rusted weapons. They found a magic boomerang and a number of gems. Moira found a diamond that stuck to her hand. Gazu was able to identify it as a mimic egg, which would hatch in six days.

The group took a short rest near the altar to Arawan.

Cabbage unlocked a door carved with scenes of battle to find another old library with shifting shelves. Moira used Mage Hand to press the tiles that moved the shelves, but the cerebral creeper growing on one shelf caused some psychic damage. With the way cleared, Moira searched the shelves. The books were all falling apart, but she found one false book, hollowed out to hide a sapphire worth 1,000 gold.

As the characters started approaching the Great Library, they heard the static of devoured voices, and the voice of the Great Hunger demanded they feed it memories. Gazu decided to let go of two memories: one of eating a perfect apple with his father at on the bank of a stream, and the other of his recent ally Skirovan. He also forgot how to speak Celestial and how to use his wood carving kit.

These memories seemed to sate the Great Hunger. It invited the characters into the Great Library, and commanded its spined devil scribes to leave them be.

15 Copper Beetle, 1310

Gazu, leading the group into the Great Library, asked the Great Hunger about its purpose. He learned that the Great Hunger worked for the Abbot, but had a separate master it called Father. Its purpose was to devour memories and spread them to its brothers and sisters and the Abbot.

Within the library, the characters found more mosaic doors. A mosaic marked with the words "The Abbot is an Architect of Faith" opened when Gazu tapped a nail with a hammer. Beyond, they found an observatory overlooking the valley. A blind nothic named Third etched a star chart into a large window. Gazu befriended the nothic and found out that the Abbot was the student of a Star Spawn called the Wise Visitor. The Star Spawn still lived in the grotto beneath the Abbey, but Third suspected it felt trapped there.

Moira opened another mosaic door by striking a mosaic bell with her Starborn Scythe. In the Library of Worlds Beyond, the characters found more bookshelves covered by Cerebral Creepers. Vimak shot one with his crossbow, and the Creepers responded by summoning three Intellect Devourers.

Though Quiet and Moira were damaged by the brain dogs, the characters worked together to destroy the creatures before anyone's intelligence could be drained.

Quiet leapt from tile to tile, shifting the shelves to open the passage. He found a hallway leading to a Gallery of Fallen Stars. Gazu searched a scaffolded shelf and found a number of star fragments, along with a stone carved like an eye and a thin bottle containing smoldering sand.

Quiet arranged the star fragments on a magic circle, copying the arrangement from a painting in the Observatory. A secret door in the wall was outlined in glowing light. He pushed through the secret door and found a long, dark stairway leading down to somewhere dark, wet, and cold.

In the stairway stood a dwarf with rusted armor and a tangled beard - Udgar Vance. He shouted out, "Get back, you beasts! I know you for who you truly are: servants of the Devil Queen!"

Udgar held out a golden, gem-encrusted hilt, and summoned forth a flame of pure sunfire: the Sun Blade revealed!

15 Copper Beetle, 1310

Udgar Vance, confused by voices in his head, summoned three azers through the Sun Blade to fight the characters.

Moira and Quiet were blinded by the azers, and fled from the stairwell. An azers entered the Gallery of Fallen Stars and attacked Gazu, but was pushed back. Moira cast Hypnotic Pattern, hypnotizing Udgar and one of the azers.

Gazu used the Catapult spell to slam a torch into the Sun Blade, sending the weapon to the ground. Vimak threw Quiet over the heads of the azers so the kenku could grab the magic blade.

As the two azers turned towards Quiet, the group focused their attacks, destroying the fire elementals.

Quiet dragged Udgar out of the stairwell. The dwarf claimed he had two voices in his head: Nostraya's, telling him to return to the surface and drink the blood of his companions, and another voice, telling him to go deeper into the abbey. Udgar still believed he was cursed with vampirism.

Gazu drew Udgar's blood and studied it, discovering that the dwarf was not a vampire. He was able to convince Udgar that he was delusional. Cab cast Protection from Evil on Udgar, freeing him from Nostraya's charm.

Together, the group destroyed the final azer.

Quiet took out the hilt of the Sun Blade, and the prophesy of the tarokka cards was complete:

In a gray stone building where warriors look over the valley and sigh awaits a weapon feared by the she-devil, though through ill luck it lies in the hands of another.

The power of the Hermit Stars filled the characters. They reflected on the strange and powerful places their journey had taken them, and leveled up.

After resting for a short bit, Moira lead the group down the stairs into a twisting cavern covered in a translucent slime. Gazu and Quiet studied the slime, and Gazu realized it was a sign that they were near a powerful aberration.

Moira explored a pipe that bisected the cavern. Beyond it, she found a crumbling altar fronted by an archway, on which were carved the words:

Upon this spring eternal we build our abbey. May liberation flow along its tributaries into the darkened valley.

Beyond the archway, the altar had been devoured by moisture and time, and most of it had collapsed into a deep pool of cold water. Gazu slipped on the Ring of Swimming and dove into the pool to try and retrieve a sunken treasure chest. Instead, he awoke two Water Elementals, which started to swirl and attack the group!

15 Copper Beetle, 1310

The water elementals overwhelmed Gazu and Quiet. The two escaped, but were caught up again in the waves. Moira cast Fireball, and after the blast Vimak charged in and destroyed the elementals.

Gazu, Vimak, and Udgar worked together to pull the treasure chest out from the water. Vimak found himself winded, but the group recovered many coins and a silver statue of an eel.

The group considered resting in the empty pipe, but Quiet heard the approach of an intellect devourer. When he advanced upon the beast, he heard a voice begging him not to kill her children. Quiet followed the voice and found a kind of nursery, a cave filled with fungi and weird green eggs, tended to by a blind nothic named First and her pet intellect devourers and baby otyugh.

First explained that she had been taught how to grow these creatures by the Abbot and his mentor Oyonai, the Wise Visitor. She grew the creatures from the slime that coated the cave surfaces, and fed them memories harvested by the Great Hunger. She recalled bringing gifts to Oyonai, and told the characters that the caves spiraled to a lake at the center.

In an old underground room, Udgar and Gazu found a pedestal with some kind of mechanism built into it. Gazu placed the metal rod taken from the crushed skeleton into the mechanical device, and found that he was able to block water from one pipe at a time.

Quiet lead the group through a second pipe and into more twisting caves. He and pin encountered two nothic archers and a nothic mystic named Tenth, who immediately attacked!

Quiet took initiative and shot one of the archers in the eye. The mystic cast a spell creating a cloud of poisonous fumes. As the characters ran through the cloud, Udgar was attacked by a bundle of slimy vines. He broke through the vines and closed in on the center of the mass, weapon ready.

15 Copper Beetle, 1310

Things began with Gazu, Quiet, and Moira encased in the poisonous green mists of the Nothic Mystic Tenth's Cloudkill spell.

Gazu and Quiet made their way out of the toxic cloud. Quiet struck at Tenth with his Sun Blade, burning the mystic and breaking his concentration.

The Nothic Mystic cast a gooey Web spell at Vimak and Gazu, then tried to flee, but was decapitated by Wyvern Steel.

As Quiet retreated towards another underground chamber, the two Nothic Archers pursued him, greatly wounding him with their arrows. Vimak charged in and engaged the archers with axe and blade.

Meanwhile, Moira found herself targeted by the slimy assassin vine. Though her ankle was crushed by the vines, she managed to escape. The vines followed, squeezing through a small crevice. Gazu recognized that the assassin vines would be vulnerable to lightning damage, and struck out with his witch bolt!

Moira sent two Eldritch Blasts out against the Nothic Archers. She knocked one dead against the cave wall, and hit the other in the back. Quiet took advantage of the strike to leap out and bury his Sun Blade in the archer's chest.

The assassin vines started to slowly creep closer to Gazu, but he focused his magic lightning and shocked the vines to death.

In the aftermath of the battle, Vimak found a Wand of Secrets on the Nothic Mystic, and Gazu saved a piece of the slimy assassin vines in a beaker.

The characters retreated to an underground room with a mysterious mechanism and rested. Once they had caught their breath, they investigated a strange column topped with a dial. The dial seemed to control the levels of the pipes. Working together, Moira, Gazu, and Quiet lifted the pipes to reveal the rest of the trapped skeleton. They found a slim metal rod on a chain around the skeleton's neck.

Meanwhile, Vimak used the Wand of Secrets to investigate a series of columns carved with Luminaries holding flaming torches. The Wand of Secrets alerted him to the trapped torches, which burst out in radiant flames when something passed between.

Moira used Misty Step to teleport to the other side of the statues. She found a stone coffin with broken headstone reading "Here lies..." and "the Abbot of Grayview." This stretch of cavern also ended in a large pipe.

Unfortunately, Moira was unable to find any mechanisms to turn off the trap. As she reported back to the characters, they were forced to wonder how they would continue towards the center of this twisting, slimy cavern.

15 Copper Beetle, 1310

The session began with the characters standing at either end of the hall of lights. After testing some different theories, Moira cast Darkness, extinguishing the radiant flames of the torches.

The group split for a time so that Quiet and Moira could manipulate the pipes while Gazu and Vimak explored further. Down another twisting cave they found a large statue of a skull, which emanated with frightening magic. They managed to resist the magic, but Vimak stepped onto a pit trap and fell thirty feet. After crawling his way out, the two found a locked metal door with falling stars carved into it.

Gazu knocked upon the door, and when a voice answered he said the group was there to offer knowledge of the valley to the Wise Visitor. The door was opened, and Vimak and Gazu walked into a large cave surrounding an underground lake. To one side sat a fallen star, cracked open, from which glowing stones had been taken and placed throughout the cavern. Blind Nothics, followed by Intellect Devourers, tended to the crystals.

Gazu was motioned forward towards a statue of a seated figure with many arms and legs. The statue began to move, and Gazu and Vimak heard the voice of the Wise Visitor in their heads. The Wise Visitor saw in Gazu's mind that his greatest desire was the destruction of Queen Nostraya. He said their goals aligned, and bid Gazu to collect the rest of his group.

With the help of Udgar Vance and Quiet's Eversmoking Bottle, the group made their way back to the underground spring. In a conversation with Oyonai, the group learned that the Wise Visitor was exiled from another plane of existence, and arrived trapped in the fallen star eons ago. He now wants to be left in peace, with a sustainable food source of memories. The Wise Visitor offered to leave Grayview Abbey if he had another food source; namely, the dragon Morovahn and his village of kobolds.

Oyonai seemed to take pity on Quiet, as another exile from a different world, and told the kenku that he could access his home again through the Standing Stones that dotted the valley. He said that Granny O'gwa knew how to use the Standing Stones to reach another plane of existence.

As the group left the grotto, the Wise Visitor revealed his true form to Quiet. He was a pale and tentacled terror with three eyes and a gaping maw.

Out in the tunnels, the characters debated their options. They decided to enact the Ritual of the Sun Blade, put the inhabitants of the Old Abbey to sleep, and wipe this darkness from the land.

15 - 23 Copper Beetle, 1310

The session began the Sun Blade Ritual. Vimak supported Cab as he read over religious texts that had not changed in thousands of years. Quiet and Gazu spoke out words of great power, guiding the magic of the ceremony. Moira performed and incredible set of military moves with the Sun Blade. As she set the blade into its altar, the magic of Arawan was restored to Grayview Abbey, and the evil within was forced into a deep slumber.

Back in the Sunspire, the characters found a night of festivities under way. Udgar Vance explained that this night was a feast known as the Offering of Marrow. Many succulent dishes were prepared, and the bones, shells, and husks were offered on silver platters to Arawan. This feast reflected Arawan's mastery of death, so that those who worshipped him could celebrate and enjoy life.

Vimak got to enjoy a whole side of elk. Moira drank famous Grayview Abbey Wine. Quiet joined in with the games played by the children from the Exile Camp. And Cab received a big plateful of steamed cabbages from his old friend Dieter.

As the night waned, Calim Marshauk, the smithy of the Sunspire, brought out beautiful silver clasps shaped like a sun with the silhouette of a tower. These were the symbols of the Gray Warden. As he gave each character a clasp, the other knights raised a toast and cheered.

The next morning, the characters were summoned to the tower where Dawnbreaker was being kept prisoner. Inside, they found Dawnbreaker with her intelligence restored. She explained that when she was cursed with vampirism by Baron Rothvel, the Gray Warden rescued her and brought her to Grayview Abbey. There, she meditated in front of the Sun Blade, and its magic allowed her to reclaim her mind. However, when Udgar Vance took the Sun Blade, she was plunged back into her animal state.

When Vimak and Quiet described Oyonai, Dawnbreaker grew excited. She told the group how she had prayed to her own gods back in the Goliath homelands to give her a foe worth hunting. She had seen a vision of a white-skinned giant known as the Pale Fellow, chained by its writs, standing over the valley. She had originally thought the Pale Fellow was Rothvel, but since coming to Grayview Abbey she had learned that the Pale Fellow was some kind of creature kept by Nostraya in labyrinths beneath the Ember Keep. Dawnbreaker wondered if the Pale Fellow could have come from the Ember Heart, a large red crystal fallen star inside the Ember Keep.

Dawnbreaker officially recognized the group, whom she called the Starborn, as Gray Wardens. They could now pass through the Sunspire Mountains without paying tax to the dragon Morovahn.

She then brought in Booker and Udgar Vance and asked the characters to name the consequences appropriate for these two for upsetting the Sun Blade ritual. The group decided that Udgar had already paid penance by helping them in the Wise Visitor's grotto. However, Booker would have to come with them into the old Abbey, and then stay down there, cleaning it of slime and training others to keep the caves free from evil.

Rather than head down into the Abbey right away, the Starborn decided to spend a week resting and training at the Sunspire.

Vimak trained with Vistra, learning about charms and resistances, and became proficient in Wisdom Saving Throws.

Quiet and Cab trained with Valchek and Goodboy, learning how to train and handle animals.

Moira set up worship of the Kind Raven in the cemetery behind the Sunspire. As she worshipped Mythrakin, she took time to explain his power to any knights passing by. During the week, the Mimic egg hatched, and Moira named her new pet Morton.

Meanwhile, Nostraya recruited more artificers.

At the end of the week, Dawnbreaker was led to a reinforced cell, and Booker joined the characters as they headed back towards the old Abbey.

23 Copper Beetle, 1310

The session began by reviewing Gazu's week of downtime. The gnome artificer had studied with the dwarven smithy Calim Marshauk. Together, they had uncovered the ancient texts of the dwarven engineers. Marshauk helped Gazu build a weapon of war to use in the upcoming battles in Grayview Abbey.

On a damp, chill day, with swirling gray clouds, the Starborn and Booker made their way back into the Old Abbey. Vimak led the group through the upper level down into the Lost Library. There, the group planned to ambushed the Great Hunger and the Spined Devils in the large library hall.

First, Quiet and Moira snuck down into the library to search for books and treasure. Quiet used his quick, nimble hands to take out a dozen memory books from the Great Hunger's nest of books. Moira searched a bookshelf and found more valuable books, as well as two beautifully-carved jade bookends.

With the room clear of valuables, Moira started the ambush by casting Fireball. This woke the monsters in the room, and soon everyone was caught up in the battle.

Vimak cut through a shelf full of cerebral creeper before any of the brains could drop off and form Intellect Devourers. Cab summoned forth a radiant sphere of spectral mushrooms, burning at the Spined Devils and Great Hunger. Quiet leapt into the room and buried his dagger into the heart of a grell's brain body. Gazu let loose his latest creation, Terry, a mechanical turtle topped by an eldritch cannon.

Suddenly a tornado of loose pages and parchment swirled up, obscuring the hall where most of the characters huddled.

Across the library, Moira found herself facing off against two spined devils and more cerebral creeper.

The Great Hunger found itself barraged on all sides, including a critical strike from Wyvern Steel, and it started to grow larger. It leapt up and slammed the ground, causing bits of wall and shelves to fall onto the characters. Suddenly Moira cast a devastating Shatter spell, killing the Great Hunger and a Spined Devil.

Quiet, meanwhile, pursued more of the Spined Devils. He leapt out and shoved one to the ground, but then found himself pursued by two of the creatures, only to be saved by Cab's radiant mushrooms.

Cab then flung his cloak aside and summoned two radiant wings, flying out over the hall to rescue Moira from a summoned Intellect Devourer. Quiet followed, and together he and Moira slew the final cerebral creeper.

As Booker shed a tear for the ruined library, Vimak urged the group onward. They passed through a mosaic door up to the Observatory, where Vimak killed the sleeping blind nothic glass carver.

The characters then opened a final mosaic door by writing the word Death upon it. Inside they found a narrow library with tall shelves, lit by flickering candlelight. Vimak's Wand of Secrets pointed to the nearest shelf. As Moira investigated, she found her hand stuck to one of the books. The entire shelf started to awaken; a mimic in disguise!

23 - 25 Copper Beetle, 1310

The session began with Moira stuck to a mimic disguised as a bookshelf in the Library of Lost Memories. The mimic sent out pheromones to awaken the other sleeping bookshelf mimics. Gazu immediately cast Fog Cloud into the narrow library, and a bloody battle broke out within and without the swirling mists.

Moira, Vimak, and Cab faced off against the mimics, striking at them with blades and magic, as Gazu supported their efforts through Steamrollers and Terry's Eldritch Ballista.

Suddenly a spined devil flew from the mists. Gazu dropped the Fog Cloud and launched a poisonous Chromatic Orb at the devil, killing it in one hit.

As Vimak, Moira, and Cab finished off the mimics, a Nothic revealed itself, using its deadly gaze to attack the characters. It tried to run past Gazu, but Terry roasted it with its built-in flamethrower.

With their enemies toast, the characters investigated some of the books in the room. Cab found the memory books of himself, Moira, Gazu, and Vimak. They eagerly read through the pages, restoring their own memories.

Vimak found a box with some gold and jewels in it, and another volume of the Abbot's works entitled "The Abbot is an Imperious Sentinel." When he opened it, he found an explosive glyph, which destroyed the book and shocked most of the group.

The characters decided to rest overnight before traveling deeper. Back in the graveyard of Grayview Abbey, Moira handed out memory books to the Gray Wardens, in a ritual to Mithrakin the Kind Raven. Two Gray Wardens, Wheeler and Barrow, decided to restore the cemetery and build a shrine to the Kind Raven.

The next day, the group descended into the Abbot's Grotto. They snuck up on First's Nursery, and quickly slaughtered the Intellect Devourers and the baby otyugh. First took off her bandage and revealed her eye socket to Vimak, who briefly saw the great expanse of time itself and was stunned. As First backed into the murky waters, Cab decapitated her with radiant flame.

The characters once again retreated to Grayview Abbey and slept the night. Then, with Booker's help raising and lowering pipes, they made their way to Oyonai's underground spring.

Moira sent her familiar Pin to investigate the broken fallen star at one side of the spring. Inside, she saw the star was hollow and filled with glowing yellow stones. There was also a pedestal, forged of copper and iron, on which sat a fortified glass jaw. Inside the jar floated the brain of the Abbot.

The Abbot spoke out to Pin and Moira. It was revealed that the Abbot could not be put to sleep by the Sun Blade, for he was the first to attune to the weapon. Instead, the Abbot had been awake for thousands of years while his master and minions slept.

Moira asked the Abbot why they should let him live, and he convinced the group that he could help renegotiate with Oyonai. He said that Oyonai knew of a secret enemy to the group, an ally of Nostraya's. If the characters attempted to fight Nostraya, this enemy would be at her side and assure their failure. Oyonai could be used to negate this unknown foe.

The group agreed to renegotiate. Moira disturbed the waters of the spring, and Oyonai emerged. He beckoned his agreement and urged the characters to come forward and talk.

25 Copper Beetle - 4 Dun Badger

The session began with Gazu addressing Oyonai, the Wise Visitor. Oyonai offered to contact the stars and reveal information on a secret enemy who could fight by Nostraya's side. However, he wished the characters to weaken that enemy so that he could take over their body and mind, drawing power in order to return back to his home world.

The characters agreed, and through a series of cryptic questions Oyonai revealed the following prophesy:

At the resting place of the blue daughter of the moon schemes a powerful foe; be warned, they seek to form an alliance with one who would guarantee your doom.

With that, Oyonai vanished into the water, ready to reemerge in the valley when the time was right.

Moira and Quiet convinced the Abbot, and the remaining blind nothics and intellect devourers, to work with Booker to restore the library and Grayview Abbey.

Back on the surface, the characters spent a week training. Moira trained in Athletics with Menhir, Quiet trained in Wisdom Saving Throws with Vistra, and Vimak trained in Animal Handling with Valchek. Gazu spent the week scribing spell scrolls, and Cab helped replant the fields of Hawthorne before giving Sister Sorrel a large amount of gold to maintain the hermitage.

Meanwhile, without the characters knowing, Nostraya reinforced her power in Umber Dell.

At the end of the week, Vimak said goodbye to his mentor Dawnbreaker as Quiet retrieved the Sun Blade. Dawnbreaker reminded Vimak to keep an eye out for the Pale Fellow. Quiet ran into Booker, who gave him a book written by the Abbot about the Starborn and their quest to defeat Queen Nostraya.

The Starborn traveled down the Sunspire Mountains and across Moonstone Lake. As they sailed up the river towards Umber Dell, they found the swampy village much changed. Large banners of Null, the Draconic God of Death, hung along the riverside, and the gnoll guards had been replaced by undead.

Through Quiet's spying, and conversations with Skywatcher Aris and old Tolzin, the group found out that Nostraya had ridden into Umber Dell upon a flying, flaming horse, and had set Skirovan as the new Lord. The rebellious tortles of Vetch had been forced back across the river, and Doviaen and the gnolls had been ousted and were last seen sailing away downstream.

Gazu and Moira retrieved items crafted from the fallen star from Kolcha. Moira was given a Cloak of Protection, and Gazu was given an Amulet of the Drunkard.

After meeting with the tortles of Aldertree, the group put on disguises and snuck back into Vetch. They followed crowds into the Citadel of Eternal Sorrows, where Skirovan announced that the town would now be making undead soldiers to sell to the lords of the Valley and lands beyond. He warned the citizens of Vetch to not try to go back to old ways, and to demonstrate he used his new vampiric teeth to drain the blood and life of Madam White.

After the townsfolk left, the group wandered back into the Citadel. One of the undead guards summoned Skirovan to talk with Gazu. It turned out the gnome necromancer's mind and soul completely belonged to Queen Nostraya now. Gazu started to walk away, drawing Skirovan's attention as the rest of the group sprung towards him, weapons drawn.

Quiet unsheathed the Sun Blade, filling the citadel with sunlight and slicing at Skirovan. Cab summoned his radiant mushroom cloud, dissolving one of the Dread Guards. Vimak chopped at the gnome with his axe, as Moira unleashed a terrifying psychic lance. Gazu catapulted a bottle at Skirovan, then repelled one of the Dread Guards with his magic armor.

Suddenly, a Dread Guard further into the Citadel opened a door to the barracks, unleashing nine more undead warriors into the room!

4 - 11 Dun Badger, 1310

The session began in the midst of a battle with Skirovan and his army of undead. As Quiet struck from one side with the Sun Blade, Vimak struck from the other, lopping off the head of the vampire gnome. In the light of the Sun Blade, Skirovan's body turned to ash.

Meanwhile, a dozen Dread Guards moved down the great hall towards the characters. Moira cast Fireball, reducing many of the undead to flickering shadows. Most were then destroyed by the flames of Cab's Radiant Guardians. Between Gazu's Shatter spell, and Vimak's greataxe, the remaining undead were quickly dealt with.

Up in the Citadel's tower, Gazu and Moira investigated Skirovan's laboratory. They found it had been transformed into a ritual chamber to create the Dread Guard. Studying Skirovan's notes, Gazu figured out a way to reprogram the undead. In an expensive ritual, the group commanded the Dread Guard to walk towards Cab as he stood upon the Queensbane.

That night, the villagers of both Vetch and Aldertree gathered on the bridge to watch as a hundred Dread Warriors marched towards Cab, bursting into radiant flames and dissolving into bones to be carried down the river. Moira read from the Abbot's Book of the Starborn as Quiet whispered in her ear and Vimak played his horn. The sight was so moving that it inspired the tortles and tieflings to live in harmony.

After some discussion, the group decided to stay in Umber Dell for the week in order to reinforce the peace. As Vimak, Cab, and Moira trained their pigs, Gazu took apart the Abbot's talking owlbear doll in order to craft additions to his Steamroller.

Meanwhile, Quiet helped turn Madam White's School of Etiquette and Labor into the Migrant Mentors, a learning center where tortles could teach tieflings useful skills of construction, gardening, and other crafts. By the end of the week, Quiet noticed that both tieflings and tortles were carving ravens into doorways as a ward against evil, inspired by the magics of the Starborn.

With the week over, the group decided to travel back to the Moonstone. They loaded onto the Queensbane and headed out. However, as they got closer to the island, a heavy rain fell, obscuring their view. Gazu, piloting the Queensbane, saw ahead the Grinning Mare, a Casino Riverboat run by a gang called the Silver Smiles in Seabriar.

As Moira sent her familiar to scout, she saw shapes moving towards them in the rain. A dragonborn named Kavir, riding a phantom dragon, and accompanied by two imps, approached the group.

Kavir knew Moira from when she was in a gang run by a devil called Lord Obsidikis. Kavir warned Moira to turn away in order to not be caught in the power of the ritual Obsidikis was enacting. When Moira refused, Kavir sent the imps back to warn his master.

Despite Vimak's best efforts with Wyvern Steel and a crossbow, the imps managed to fly out into the rainstorm and vanish from sight. Quiet leapt from the boat, attempting to shove Kavir off his mount, but passed through the body of the dragon and dove into the lake. Gazu cast Steamroller at Kavir, and in return suffered from a Hellish Rebuke. Kavir then cast five Scorching Rays at the hull of the Queensbane, burning it badly.

Suddenly Kavir's familiar, a pseudodragon, appeared behind Moira and stung her with its tail. Despite the favor of Mithrakin, Moira was poisoned and lost consciousness. Cab launched a Guiding Bolt at Kavir, which burned him badly.

11 Dun Badger, 1310

The session began with the characters in battle with Kavir, the dragonborn warlock of Lord Obsidikis. As Kavir readied another spell, Quiet swam up to the surface of Moonstone Lake and threw a dagger right into the warlock's knee. Gazu cast Steamroller at the injured Kavir, killing him.

Vimak sailed the Queensbane towards the Grinning Mare. On board the casino boat, Quiet and Pin found the dead bodies of people dressed in noble clothing. Down below, the group encountered a demon named Devour, who told the story of the boat: the dead guests were urchins, beggars, and other people without money who had traded their souls for a day of being wealthy.

Gazu was convinced to sell a third of his own soul for information on Queen Nostraya and a magic Ring of Spell Storing. Devour told Gazu that Queen Nostraya's soul was residing in the body of another. Queen Nostraya, and almost no one else alive, knew who had the soul, but controlling the soul would mean having power over Nostraya. Devour said that one who could read the stars may know the location of Nostraya's soul.

Back on the Queensbane, the group sailed towards Moonstone Island. On the island, they found Mr. Bones, Lord Obsidikis's mortal form, awaiting with a number of Silver Smiles and glowing soul orbs. Mr. Bones commanded his minions to start breaking the orbs.

Quiet leapt onto the island, grabbing as many orbs as he could. Moira faced off against Rereus, a chaotic and violent half-elf hexblade she knew from her past life. Gazu used Terry to blast Mr. Bones, shredding his mortal form and revealing his true identity as the Bone Devil Lord Obsidikis.

As Vimak charged onto the beach, Lord Obsidikis flew down and caught Quiet in his hooked polearm. Vimak cut through Silver Smiles, and Cab approached with his Spirit Guardians, but the Bone Devil was hardly injured. Meanwhile, the Silver Smiles were breaking the soul orbs, feeding the magic to the Moonstone, which started to crack. The storm, which seemed to be circling the Moonstone, worsened.

Suddenly Obsidikis launched into the air, and dropped Quiet from on high. The kenku floated to the ground, thanks to his Ring of Feather Fall, then hid in the bushes. Obsidikis descended, attacking Moira, but was surprised by Quiet who threw a dart into the base of his wings. As the Bone Devil reached up to tear out the dart, multiple pale blue tentacles emerged from the sand. Oyonai, the Wise Visitor, took over Lord Obsidikis's mind and commanded his servants to leave.

The prophesy of the stars had been fulfilled. A powerful ally of Queen Nostraya had been stopped. The storm worsened overhead.

12 Dun Badger, 1310 - 15 Golden Trout, 1311

Three months passed as a great storm battered the valley.

Moira practiced religious services in Rothvel and Grayview Abbey, gathering followers of the Kind Raven Mithrakin. For a month she lived in Seabriar, attempting crime, making friends through carousing, and crafting scrolls.

Gazu practiced wizardry at his hut in the Hagwood, attempting to learn more about Nostraya. Studying under Granny O'gwa, Gazu learned that Nostraya's immortality comes through a blade made of the Ember Heart, buried in the flank of the Pale Fellow. The group must find the Pale Fellow in the catacombs beneath the Ember Keep, which can be accessed through mines leading from the hidden village of Harvest. He was also warned that the Ember Keep was infused with Nostraya's anger, bonding it to the Devil Queen.

Cab spent the three months in the Hawthorn hermitage. He trained his pig, who had a piglet. Father Wolfgang, slowly dying, made sure Cab was ready to take over the hermitage when his quest was done.

Vimak stayed with the Omyrian Warriors in Umber Dell. He trained with Skywatcher Aris on combating spellcasters. Vimak also trained his pig, and secured chainmail barding for it, then competed in pit fighting.

Quiet found his way to Granny O'gwa's tower in Berez, and begged the former goddess to guide him to the former home of the Kenku. As a deal, O'gwa required him to plant a seed that would allow the hag and her children to travel there as well. O'gwa teleported Quiet through the Standing Stones. Quiet returned, some time later, with glimpsed memories of a realm of floating motes of earth, living weather, and flying, singing Kenku.

Quiet then spent a month in the outposts outside the Ember Keep, trying to build a network of spies and helpers. During his first two weeks, his efforts failed, and Nostraya took her revenge, kidnapping the tortle smithy Kolcha and one of Moira's new allies. Quiet persisted, and was able to find a group of forty or so people sympathetic to his cause.

Meanwhile, the group heard terrible rumors of Nosraya's evils during the great storm. The Devil Queen had sent Egabac, Cab's double, to lead an army of zombies, wights, and vampire spawn in a wave of terror across the valley. The Wolf King had been seen at the Ember Keep, attempting to make an alliance with Nostraya. The people of Seabriar were afraid to go out at night or be kidnapped by the Devil Queen riding a flying horse with a mane of fire. Werebats swarmed the base of the Sunspire Mountains, preventing travelers from accessing the trails to Grayview Abbey.

At the end of the three months, the characters gathered in Rothvel, called through their dreams by Madam Zolenka. At the ruins of the Durst Manor, she explained that the spirits of the family who once lived there still draw adventurers to the valley for Nostraya to hunt down, and that the souls trapped there awaken as angry undead.

Madam Zolenka did a final card reading, revealing the following prophesy:

Where clever crafts prevent fools from drowning, you will gain knowledge invaluable; make haste, before the great secret is lost.

The characters loaded up the Queensbane and sailed to Ottswold. There they found a swarm of ravens circling the Weeping Widow's Mill. One raven landed on their ship, and transformed into Sehnovi. She thanked the Kind Raven for sending the Starborn, asking for their help in defeating the vampire of Slough Manor.

15 Golden Trout, 1311

The session began with the Starborn being brought into the Blue Otter Pub & Boatworks. Inside, Sehnovi and the other Keepers of the Feather explained how Roland Fiddle, the vampire lord of Ottswold, had cast some sort of ritual inside the Weeping Widow's Mill. The Keepers told the history of Roland Fiddle, who had been a young rebellious bard who was tricked into vampirism by Queen Nostraya. Lord Roland seemed to be aggravating the Weeping Widow, a ghost who knew a surprising amount about Queen Nostraya and the Valley of the Fallen Stars.

The group snuck around the Weeping Widow's Mill, and ran into the Weeping Widow, who accused them of trying to steal her necklace. They were able to calm her down, but awoke a number of earthen zombies when they opened the front door of the mill house.

Inside, the characters encountered strange flying musical instruments that tried to control the minds of Vimak and Cab. Vimak was surprised by one of Lord Roland's vampire groupies. As Gazu snuck in through the attic, Moira, Quiet, and Cab made quick work of the zombies south of the manor.

From inside, they could hear the cruel laughter of Roland Fiddle.

15 Golden Trout, 1311

The session began with the group assaulting the vampires of the mill house.

As Vimak and Cab tangled with the vampire spawn Lorenzo, they could hear Roland Fiddle commanding the Weeping Widow to bring him her necklace. Quiet snuck in through the chimney and surprised Maurice, another vampire spawn who turned to ash in the sunlight beaming from the sun blade. Gazu attacked from the attic, sending spells down the stairs to shatter Roland Fiddle's magical musical instruments.

Moira, focusing on Roland Fiddle's name, attacked him with a devastating psychic spell. The vampire responded by magically shutting and locking the doors to the house. The Weeping Widow, tortured by Roland's ritual, finally surrendered her mother's necklace to the vampire lord.

Cab brandished the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind and paralyzed Roland Fiddle through the walls of the house. The vampire struggled to free himself and bring the necklace to Queen Nostraya.

As Vimak tried to bash through the doors, Gazu summoned his eldritch cannon. Terry the Turtle burst through a door. Just as Roland Fiddle regained movement and began to flee, Terry unleashed a burst of flame that caught the vampire's robes. Roland caught fire, falling to the floor, the necklace still clutched in his charred claw.

Vimak finally cut through the door and began battling the remaining zombie and vampire spawn. Moira cut through the candles surrounding Roland Fiddle's magic circle, ending his ritual. In the light of Quiet's sun blade, the vampire spawns turned to ash, and the house was cleansed of its unholy inhabitants.

The group attempted to talk with the Weeping Widow, but she was badly traumatized, and couldn't even remember her own name. Thinking back on all they'd learned, Vimak and Moira realized this was Tatyana, Nostraya's granddaughter. Once they said her name, the ghost calmed, and told the group the history of the necklace they carried.

The history began with Nostraya leading a band of knights into the Valley of the Fallen Stars. After fighting back many monsters and establishing strongholds, Nostraya was treated as a queen of the valley. She ruled over many peaceful years, until the arrival of the Dread. In a terrible battle at the Ember Keep, Nostraya's husband and two of her children were killed.

Nostraya traveled to the Amber Temple and made a deal with Null, the dragon god of death and a Dark Power imprisoned during the war with the Luminaires. Null would grant Nostraya the ability to break open the Ember Heart, the fallen star at the center of the Ember Keep, and gain power over the Dread. But she would have to allow Null to be free from his prison and live instead inside of her body.

Nostraya accepted. However, when she and the other Starsworn Knights broke open the Ember Heart, they unleashed a terrible star spawn known as the Pale Fellow. Nostraya stabbed the star spawn with a shard of the Ember Heart. The Pale Fellow bit Nostraya, cursing her with vampirism. She, in turn, attacked her knights, passing on her curse.

Nostraya's vampirism, combined with the power of Null, allowed her to control the undead swarming the valley. She sought out her daughter Marina, who was living in Berez. But the Baron of Berez killed Marina rather than see her cursed with vampirism. The Keepers of the Feather snuck Marina's daughter Tatyana out of Berez, and protected her while she lived her life in Ottswold.

The ghost of Tatyana told the characters that slaying Nostraya would not be enough. As long as the Pale Fellow still had a piece of the Ember Heart stuck in his flank, Nostraya could draw upon him to heal any wound. Furthermore, were Nostraya truly destroyed, she would release the Dark Power known as Null, who would transform the valley back into the Shadowfell.

Perhaps with the pendant Nostraya had passed on to her daughter and granddaughter, the pendant formed from a fragment of the Amber Temple, which contained a piece of Nostraya's soul, the characters would have a chance of killing the Devil Queen and trapping the Dark Power forever.

15 - 22 Golden Trout, 1311

The session began the characters finalizing their plans with the Keepers of the Feather in the Blue Otter Pub & Boatworks. They would spend the next week rallying allies to cause distractions across the valley, then meet at the Dragon Market in Seabriar.

Vimak set off to organize Udgar Vance and the Gray Wardens. Cab alerted Skywatcher Aris and the Omyrian Warriors that it was time to join the fight. Quiet helped Proctor Devout and his gnolls set a trap outside of Umber Dell. Moira went to her old boss, Mr. Bones (now controlled by the Wise Visitor Oyonai), and asked him to cause trouble in Seabriar, drawing the attention of the Ember Guard.

Battle in the streets between the Silver Smiles and the Ember Guard did not halt commerce in Seabriar, and the characters took advantage of the massive indoor Dragon Market to purchase new arms and armor, elemental gems, and a variety of poisons. They met with Fernellen, a Keeper of the Feather, at her tea and honey shop, then set off to the Harvest Mines.

Vimak led the group around the poison mists surrounding Harvest. At the entrance to the mines, Gazu found the huge muddy footprints of Hill Giants.

Quiet advanced into the mines. As the group searched for the right path, they were approached by a Hill Giant couple named Pig Iron and Scrapmarm. The Hill Giants advised the group to seek out a magic lake that would make them invisible to Queen Nostraya. Quiet and Gazu distracted the giants while the group slipped away, seeking a river they thought would lead them towards the Ember Keep.

The group came to the end of the mines, where a river had broken through the walls. Cab found a scrap of an old letter from a traveler escaping Harvest. Moira convinced the group to harvest some mushrooms. Unfortunately, the mushrooms were full of rot grubs, which exploded onto Cab and Hammertime.

After picking off the nasty larvae, the group explored upriver. Soon the underground river deepened, and the strong current threatened to send the adventurers hurtling back downstream...

22 - 23 Golden Trout, 1311

The session began with the characters facing a deep and rushing underground river. Quiet used his Cloak of the Raven to fly over the rushing waters, lifting Gazu on a rope. Vimak grabbed onto Moira, Cab, and Hammertime, and with the help of his Ring of Swimming, swam upstream.

The characters continued to follow the river through the cave tunnels. As the evening approached, they made camp. Quiet spied on the two Hill Giants, Scrapmarm and Pig Iron, who had trod up the caves to try and catch the group unawares. They had attempted to lead the characters into a trap, but now had to feed a swamp beast called Ol' Stinky a corpse instead of an adventurer.

Meanwhile, battle raged on across the Valley of the Fallen Stars. Outside of Umber Dell, the gnolls earned glory when they set a trap for the Merry Lord Montblanc, and swarmed from sunken ships. In the Hagwood, Master Quorrian raised an army of undead spirits, and Granny O'gwa was forced to retreat to the realm of the kenku, never to return.

In the morning, the group ventured out of the caves into a broad, marsh valley. The characters split for some time, investigating a number of caves and paths. Quiet explored an abandoned bear cave, and Vimak fled from a rockfall set off by mischievous kobolds. Gazu and Moira cautiously explored a cave that he animals of the marsh avoided. A redwing blackbird told Gazu that an ancient evil lived within it.

Moira found an old healing potion bottle with a note inside it. The note's author had gotten lost in the marshes, but now believed this cave would lead to escape. He hoped his lover, Rebeccah, would join him soon.

Gazu noticed that some of the stalagmites had humanoid faces or limbs. He realized they were people petrified by an ancient evil known as the Medusa.

The group collected back together and ventured further into the cave. Quiet turned into a bat and scouted ahead. Suddenly the Medusa slid from a hidden throne room, and announced she would be turning the characters into new stone furniture. She awakened a giant walking statue to block the characters from escaping.

Vimak, Gazu, and Hammertime battled the statue while Quiet and Moira took on the Medusa.

As Vimak chopped at the statue with his axe and flying sword, Gazu summoned an Earth Elemental which knocked the statue prone, shattering it against the cave floor.

Moira resisted the petrifying gaze of the Medusa, and harried her with eldritch blasts as Quiet surprised her with painful bites. The Medusa retreated to her throne room, but Moira and Gazu's Earth Elemental followed. The Medusa launched herself at Moira, cutting into her hand. As a reaction, Moira used her Hellish Rebuke to engulf the Medusa in flames. Her body crumbled back to dust, a thousand tiny snakes slithering off into cracks in the floor and walls.

23 - 24 Golden Trout, 1311

The session began in the lair of the ancient medusa. The characters found a number of treasures the medusa had collected over the eons.

The rest of the journey took twists and turns. The characters were forced to camp for another night.

Meanwhile, battle continued across the Valley of the Fallen Stars. Proctor Devout and his gnolls forced the Merry Lord Montblanc onto the Moonstone. There the vampire's forces were flanked by Oyonai. Montblanc found himself forced into the swift currents of the Moonstone, where he dissolved to ash.

In Umber Dell, Skywatcher Aris and the Omyrian Warriors were trapped inside their cave fortress by the Wolf King and his Nachthund. Aris sent his spirit to the ethereal plane to distact the Wolf King, allowing the Omyrian Warriors to escape. However, the young tortle could no longer find his way back to his body.

In Seabriar, the Silver Smiles coordinated with the many gangs of thieves to strike at Egabac and the Ember Guard from hidden passages under the city.

Back in the twisting caverns, the group found a ruined temple to the medusa, and a passageway up to the Ember Keep. The group passed through a secret door, and made their way into a beautiful tomb for Nostraya's children, who had died fighting against the Dread.

The characters passed through a wall of blue light and started to explore the catacombs below the Ember Keep. Quiet found a crypt with his name carved into the door, and his own body inside. At his touch, the corpse dissolved into ash.

Pin flew ahead in owl form, and saw a huge giant covered in writhing chains. Battle began against this giant, and two others.

The chains possessed strange magic powers. Vimak and Hammertime were teleported further into the catacombs. Quiet was pulled through a wall into a crypt with a vampire spawn. When Moira cast Shatter, it awoke swarms of bats from their roost on the ceiling. Giant wolf spiders crawled out of a crypt and attacked Hammertime, knocking the pig unconscious with their poison bites. Cab summoned his radiant mushrooms, burning away at the bats and chained giants.

Slowly the group fought the chained giants, revealing strange forms beneath. One giant was actually two spectators, floating cyclopean heads with four magic eye stalks. Another chained giant was actually four gazers, tiny magic aberrations. And one giant was revealed to be a huge white creature with a spherical body, a dozen long tendrils ending in toothy maws, and a single red eye.

It was the Pale Fellow. A shard of the Ember Heart was stuck in its side.

Vimak attempted to grapple the Pale Fellow and pull at the crystal shard, but was teleported away. As Moira and Quiet battled the last chained giant, the Pale Fellow grappled Cab in its long tentacles. It began to suck his blood, and the cleric weakened. Despite his efforts to get free, Cab found himself grappled by more and more tentacles. The life leeched out of him, and he died.

The Pale Fellow let go of Cab's body, allowing it to slide, lifeless, to the stone floor. Suddenly Cab's eyes opened, glowing red.

24 - 25 Golden Trout, 1311

The session began with Cab's spirit leaving his body and drifting towards Hawthorn, the hermitage where he had recovered after his last battle with Nostraya. He was spotted by Father Wolfgang, who then pleaded with the god Arawan to allow Cab to live. Arawan agreed to take Father Wolfgang in his stead, but warned Cab he would need to sacrifice either the Sun Blade or the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind in order to reclam his body. Furthermore, if he were to die by violence again, his soul would be destroyed.

Back in the catacombs beneath the Ember Keep, Cab appeared as a ghost to help in the battle against the Pale Fellow.

Working together, the group worked to turn the tide against their foes. The Spectators and Gazers blasted at the characters with their eyebeams. Vimak became dazed, Quiet was shoved across the labyrinth, and Moira was covered in bitter frost. Gazu found himself grappled by the Pale Fellow, whose long tentacles entangled Vimak and Moira.

Suddenly Moira cast a spell that forced the Pale Fellow to drift to the floor, laughing maniacally out of its dozen mouths. Quiet used the distraction to appear behind the vampiric Cab and snatch the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind, dashing it to pieces on the stone floor. Cab reclaimed his body as Gazu forced back the Gazers with a thunderclap spell, and Terry the Turtle unleashed fire breath on the Spectators.

Unfortunately Devour's curse struck, and Gazu's magic went wild, poisoning Moira.

Before the Pale Fellow could regain control of its body, Vimak pulled the shard of the Ember Heart from the star spawn's side. Moira unleashed a devastating psychic blast before falling to the Pale Fellow's barbed tentacles.

As the Pale Fellow drank at Vimak's and Moira's blood, Quiet suddenly appeared behind it. He saw the blood running through the Pale Fellow's tentacles to a strange, writhing organ beneath the creature's translucent hide. He struck true with his dagger, piercing the Pale Fellow's heart.

The Spectators and Gazers, being products of the Pale Fellow's fractured mind, vanished.

Suddenly the characters received a vision of a field of stars, and a constellation shaped like a lock. They fulfilled the Tarokka Cards' prophesy:

In twisting halls beneath a throne, wherein wanders a pale prisoner, there lies a key that unlocks the Devil Queen's greatest secret; though take heed: those who seek its power risk a terrible curse.

The characters made camp in the catacombs and rested. Meanwhile, their allies battled across the valley.

In the Hagwood, the Clockwork Coven communed with the Hagwood, twisting the paths into a never-ending labyrinth that trapped Master Quillien and his vampire spawn. At the Sunpire, the Gray Wardens set a trap to draw Lady Vesper and her werebats, who were then attacked by the black dragon Morovahn.

Unfortunately, Lady Vesper summoned forth the vampiric Dawnbreaker. When Udgar Vance tried to protect Dawnbreaker, he was fatally stabbed in the back. This woke Dawnbreaker enough from Lady Vesper's enchantment that she took up Udgar's axe and joined the battle!

In Umber Dell, with Skywatcher Aris trapped in the ethereal plane, the Omyrian Warriors took on one last desperate move to protect the townsfolk from the Nachthund. They baited the werewolves into the Omyrian Fortress, then exploded Skirovan's alchemical powders, bringing the caves down on the Nachthund- and themselves.

In Seabriar, Mr. Bones revealed his true form as a bone devil, frightening away the Ember Guard. Egabac tried to summon terrible magics, but faltered when Cab died. This provided Mr. Bones the opportunity to tear Egabac into pieces.

After resting for the night, the characters explored the catacombs. They found a tunnel leading to a basement room with a huge stone brazier, surrounded by colorful stones. On the bottom of a dwarf-sized hourglass hanging above the brazier, the characters read a rhyme with instructions for the fire. When they threw the gems into the fire, each one showed a different location. They saw the Bones of Orzamora, and Nostraya's crypt.

Gazu touched the flames and teleported to the crypt. Three vampire spawns pulled themselves from the ground: Cab's old adventuring group! Together, the characters made quick work of these corrupted warriors.

Back with the brazier, the characters saw the Amber Temple, and finally a cozy room decorated with hunting trophies. The den was crowded with people: Goldberry told a rousing story in front of a fire, and his audience was made up of all sorts of folks in fine clothing, including Madame Zolenka, Chamberlain Durst, and Father Wolfgang...

25 Golden Trout, 1311

The session began with the characters teleporting into the hunting den of the Ember Keep. Their entry was hardly noticed by the guests listening to Goldberry's story. Gazu used Detect Thoughts to read the mind of Madame Zolenka and realized all the guests were under an enchantment.

When Gazu read the thoughts of Father Wolfgang, he was shocked to hear the voice of Queen Nostraya. The characters realized this was the Devil Queen's disguise, and combat began!

Quiet jammed the Shard of the Ember Heart into Wolfgang's neck, and they transformed back into Queen Nostraya.

The noble audience dropped their guise and revealed themselves to be vampire spawn, and wolf archers and wolf witches, Nacthund who serve the Wolf King. As Quiet ignited his Sun Blade, and Cab summoned his Guardian Spirits, Queen Nostraya fled the room to let her minions take care of these intruders.

But the Starborn proved apt warriors. Vimak was a furious tornado of blood, dropping witches and archers with his axe and Wyvern Steel. Gazu and Moira shielded Quiet from attacks as the kenku darted out of the room to strike at Nostraya. Hammertime headbutted anyone nearby.

Quiet and Vimak followed Queen Nostraya into another room, where they found Trout lounging on a fine bed. The vampiric fisherman leapt up to defend Nostraya. The shard of the Moonstone he kept at his lapel absorbed the light of the Sun Blade. Quiet snatched the gem from Trout. The vampire fled into the den, and Nostraya slammed the doors shut, trapping Vimak and Quiet in the room with her.

In the den, Trout grappled with Moira, and Cab and Gazu struck at the vampire, trying to free their companion.

Meanwhile, Nostraya cast a massive Fireball at Vimak and Quiet, but the two adventurers were hardly effected. They flanked the vampire queen. Nostraya suddenly grabbed Quiet, lifting him into the air and drinking his blood. Vimak chopped at her from behind.

But it was the light of the Sun Blade that eventually wore Nostraya down. Her flesh began to dissolve to white ash, and the Devil Queen surrendered to the light. As she collapsed to the ground, dark swirls of black smoke burst from her eyes and open mouth, turning into a huge swirling stormcloud that demolished the rooms with a terrible wind.

The swirling cloud formed into a gargantuan shadow dragon: Null, the Draconic God of Death!

As the characters picked themselves up off the ground, Null roared, claiming he would transform the valley back into the Shadowfell. A sphere of darkness, filled with strange black vines and bone-chilling shadows, began to swell before the dragon. Quiet freed himself from it, but Vimak was caught, and overcome by despair.

Gazu began the ritual to trap Null in the Amber Prison Pendant.

The dragon breathed out a beam of pure darkness, which passed through Gazu, Cab, and Moira. The tiefling fell.

Quite closed in on the dragon, the light of the Sun Blade piercing the flowing shadows. He stabbed Null with the Shard of the Ember Heart, and even when he was knocked down by the dragon's tail, life flowed into him through the dagger.

Hammertime pulled Vimak from the Shadowfell, which flowed over Nostraya's body and the grieving Trout.

Terry the Turtle healed Moira. As Null summoned his devastating breath weapon again, Moira cast Irresistible Laughter, and the dragon fell to the ground, laughing! Gazu used the opportunity to run from his companions, protecting them from the dragon's wrath.

The dragon recovered just as Vimak charged at it, swinging in the light of the Sun Blade, chopping away at the god. But Null's focus was on the Amber Prison Pendant. He breathed out a beam of darkness again, piercing Gazu's chest, knocking out the gnome.

Cab climbed over the rubble to his friend, and pulled the Amber Prison Pendant from his neck. He placed it over his own head, and completed the ritual.

Null was drawn towards the pendant like a stormcloud drawn into a bottle. As his essence filled the pendant, Cab found the god also inhabiting his body. He knew his control over Null was limited, and that he would suffer terrible nightmares all his life. Each year on this date, he would be forced to enact this ritual again.

The rain outside suddenly ceased, and sunlight streamed through the shattered window into the ruined rooms of the Ember Keep.

Vampires and Shadows throughout the valley turned to ash in the sunlight. Their followers fled into the hills and swamps. In Rothvel, Yosef and Mina, the owners of the Huntsman, stepped out, holding the baby they found in the ruins of the Durst Manor to the warm sun. In Ravenwood Court, a young woman named Betsi watched as sunlight reflected off the river, eating away the ever-present fog. In Ottswald, Sehnovi and the Keepers of the Feather walked into the orchards. Flowers bloomed in the trees, and one by one they turned to ravens and fly towards the sky. In Umber Dell, an old tortle named Tolvin sat in a pool of sunlight, his battles finally over. A tiefling walked over and placed a wide-brimmed, very fine hat on his head, then sat down next to him. In Grayview Abbey, the trained wolf Goodboy howled in joy, and chased the butterflies that descended in the beams of sunlight. In Seabriar, the tortle teaseller Fernellen set up a table outside, and in the quickly heated street tried something new: iced tea…

Over the years, changes came to the Valley of the Fallen Stars...

Proctor Devout led his gnolls to the ruins of the Omyrian Fortress. Together, they worked to repair the old caverns, and turned it into a site of learning.

The Gray Wardens descended from their mountain fortress, and restored the Fallen Sisters. They now patrolled the valley, protecting it from any future threats.

Mr. Bones and the Silver Smiles became regular staples in Seabriar, starting a line of sunscreen with religious texts printed on the bottles.

The Clockwork Coven opened the Hagwood to visitors, and turned Granny O'gwa's tower into a museum all about the goddess.

And the Wolf King and the Nachthund retreated to the mountains, to regroup and some day attempt again to rule over the valley.

Each of the Starborn went on towards further destinies...

Vimak returned to Grayview Abbey and told Dawnbreaker of their victory. He then left the valley, and stories followed him, of a towering goliath and a drunken pig fighting greater and greater enemies...

Cab returned to Hawthorne, where he became father of the hermitage. He lived the rest of his life in quiet service, once a year repeating a ritual to keep his caged god in control...

Quiet sought the Amber Temple, to learn how to cure Dawnbreaker's vampirism. With Dawnbreaker restored, he took the Sun Blade off on his journeys to battle new threats...

Gazu retreated to the Hagwood, and lived his life in comfortable isolation, carving wood animals beneath the trees...

Moira worked to spread the teachings of the Kind Raven, and once a year traveled to Hawthorne to help her old friend maintain imprisonment of Null...

In time, new threats came to the valley. Perhaps the Starborn returned to defend their land, or perhaps new adventurers, inspired by these tales, took up arms and spells... But those are future legends, and this story of the Valley of the Fallen Stars has come to an end.