Session 26

For All Ages

Dawn, the first appearance of light in the sky before sunrise. Cynic and Cerrule have stood watch, until the others are awake. Aragir however, was still in deep slumber. In this dream-like state, Aragir hears voices of family and of his now long disappeared mentor at the Scarlet Academy. Before anything comes out of it, Cynic and Cerrule both take turns in waking him up, much to the annoyance of Aragir when he finally does.

After some quick breakfast, the crew decides to head further into the forest. They seem to have reached Hunters Pass, a place far into the forest and up near the foot of the White Mountains. Here, an old and deprecated small house met their eyes, and the curious bunch Delbellis, Aragir and Cynic decide to check it out as Kaimos and Cassius stand watch. Whilst inside the house, the empty abandoned building seems devoid of anything valuable until Aragir picks out a scroll from the books and finds some coins in some pottery of art. Somewhat in disbelief and in need of excitement, Delbellis challenges Cynic to a game of finding the better loot. And so, they begin... Going through the cracked floor, Cynic finds an old rusty rapier that was left buried. At the same time, Delbellis finds a gold ring worth 200 gold among some burnt wood inside the fairly intact fireplace. And it seems now that Delbellis had won that bet, definitely leaving the small house devoid of anything useful.

While this is happening, Cerrule went around the building and saw a small incave with double doors, locked. Noticing the weathered wood, she pulls the lock off of the doors without much of an effort, allowing access inside. And, seeing the dark interior below, goes in transformed as a spider. Below the old building appears to be a study chamber surrounded by bookcases and a single decorated altar of a bronze material engraved with lines and circles. On this, she finds an amulet with the symbol of a sun, decorated by engraved lines and circles on them here and there. While Cerrule does not recognise the symbol as-is, she does remember seeing a sun pattern in a vision or dream so decides to take it - revealing the warm exterior of it to the touch.

As the rest of the party arrives to look around as well, Delbellis feels drawn to the amulet. After a few remarks on it, Cerrule hands it to Delbellis for closer inspection to which the amulet reacts in its engraved lines dimly lit up. Delbellis acknowledges this may be something from Solis. When asked whether or not Solis is her deity, she confirms it to be so to which the amulet begins to attune to Delbellis in an extended light show enveloping Delbellis briefly.
Followed by this, the group takes a quick look around. Cerrule finds many books on mineralogy and archeaology but she finds a series of journals from some expedition in Avalon - the Firelight Expedition. It appears this group had unearthed the amulet somewhere in Avalon with one of the members smuggling it back here for careful examination. Cerrule doesn't seem to make much sense of it all but takes the journals anyway, all 11 of them logs spanning between 433 PT and 444 PT - this year.

The group ventures forth and come across an encampment of several members of the Brassdorf army - a platoon of 20. Approaching, many had already perished due to some invisible reason and, on closer inspection, all of the soldiers appear incredibly old. There are a few survivors who may be on their last breath, Cerrule and Aragir quickly move in to help. As the group try to save the remaining soldiers, Cassius and Cynic retrieve the dogtags of the fallen soldiers. After a some testing involved with the Arcanum's effects in reverting the accelerated aging process and even using the Giant Skull Ring to visibly see a black hole within the sources of the surviving soldiers, Aragir theorises they may been drained from their life energy by Weylin. The commanding officer of the platoon shares a few words with the group in what happened but ultimately gives Aragir permission to see his thoughts.

Meanwhile, as Cynic collects dogtags off the soldiers and picks their pockets for good measure, he comes across what looks to be the commanding officers tent. Off the dead body of a soldier there, he grabs a bag of special magical beans (which Kaimos recognized and demostratrated in an effort to warn Cynic of its use). On a table inside the tent, Cynic finds a strange lantern of curious design as well as some maps on the surrounding area. The maps clearly outline what appears to be points of interest and groups that reside - including several unknown entities. He takes it all with him.

With the survivors speaking, Cerrule had cast Aura of Life to keep the survivors outside the reach of death as they grip a shard of Arcanum that holds their vitality youthful. They realize it will not hold for long. Aragir's Detect Thoughts revealed Gustav's group passing through here in the night. And it was an elven man in silver armor who was able to induce the aging curse on the soldiers before leaving the site. Aragir sends a message to Vaeri in the hope someone will come here quick to help, but the Four Feathers must keep going for now...

Their travels continue towards the edge of the forest, they come across a set of statues of warrior figures, seemingly represented by most races, including a Genasi and Aasimar, except humans or dwarves. The group realises the 100-Year War that resulted in the Calamity included almost everyone. This mountain is where it all ended. On closer inspection, the statues have curly decorations and the style resembles that of the statues in the Daggerborne Ruins but these statues seem to be missing several bits and pieces of the form. A broken stone stairs between the statues leads up to an entrance into the mountain, a cave perhaps. There are also demonic shapes among the races and, as Kaimos and Aragir begin to realise, they are definitely not made of stone. A not-so-stealthy Delbellis triggers the group of gargoyles to attack and the team engages in a battle! The battle ensues and it wasn't too much trouble, Cynic even went above and beyond and showed the team his real power.

After the fight the team stepped into the entrances of the cave for a short rest. The mountain used to be full of a some magical mineral, there are traces here and there still. The mineral was likely very important to the magical aspect of the 100-Year War and for this reason (or their worth?) may have been looted from the cave and even from the statues outside.

Sometime during their short rest, they begin to hear a conversation deeper into the cave. It's Peshka! A disciple of Weylin. He seems to be talking to Gustav, the party catches him mid-sentence. He appears to communicate through either magical means or through a device of sorts. As Peshka remarks on his brother Jago faded, he mentions he will bring in the deviant and their allies - referring to the party. With a Saffron Stone on him, he sets out to find them. And it is then that Peshka begins noticing the party lurking not far from him. He addresses them, introduces himself. Peshka apologizes and asks the party for understanding for their plans. It seemed Weylin has seen some possible probability in the void of the universe to fix a mistake. As Peshka explains what they must do, shadow copies of himself appear around him. Peshka, who inches closer to the party, simply demands: do not resist.

May 21st, 2022

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