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Chronicles of the Quest for Answers to Extraplanar Mysteries

After months of waiting, clues to the mysterious disappearance of Urkabi, Samso’s village, arrive with a new traveler, Blue. The Silver Tempests set off to the south to investigate, traveling to the city of Castrella, and then into the mountains on a hunt for Yeshara, the wolf-eyed queen of a shadowy realm called Cairn Dor. Fighting through shadowy enemies, the Silver Tempests find a portal to Cairn Dor called the Cleaver-Stone, as well as a series of stone plinths that form a soul compass, facilitating the theft of mortals from the Material Plane to serve as dreamers for the Shemra Azem, the sleepless, every-vigilant army of Cairn Dor. With the aid of clues found in the old Drankorian fortress guarding this place, the Silver Tempests shut down the portal and the soul compass, but retreat to Castrella to regroup before venturing into Cairn Dor itself.

Adventure 20: The Mysterious Sigil

Session 62

A few weeks after returning from rescuing Dinia from the Havoc Host, Samso is still waiting for a response to his inquiry regarding the mysterious sigil associated with his village’s disappearance and the Umbral Covenant, sent to Archivist Lyra in Chardon. The city guards bring Blue, human with blue skin and strange eyes, who claims to be carrying a message for Samso, to the Tempest Towers. Blue turns over the letter, which she has opened and read, and mentions she is also interested in tracking down the Umbral Covenant. After reading and discussing, the party uses Samso’s Transport via Plants to go back to his hometown – still abandoned – and make their way to the city of Castrella, where Lyra has suggested that folk tales and legends might provide more clues than official scholarly works.

From Urkabi, the Silver Tempests travel down the Zurrua river, on Samso’s boat summoned by the Staff of the Swamplands, finding a place to camp for the night as best they can. The next morning, with Samso’s spells restored, they turn to wind and travel to Castrella, where the party splits up. Adrik, emerging on the docks, wanders through taverns spreading money around. At The Sober Seal, he hears about Isabetta, a popular singer at the The Drunken Dolphin, who might have interesting folk legends to tell. Blue hids in an alley, and accidentally mugs a drunk sailor. Mabist, transformed into Marigold, an old woman, finds two kids, Camile and Arturo, who have fled trouble upriver, and helps find them jobs at The Whale’s Spout, where the owner, Old Leo, has made a habit of taking in orphans. Samso finds a library, but ends up annoying Niccolo, the librarian, and stealing books in wild shape.

Regrouping at The Laughing Gull for the evening, the party discusses what they learned. Adrik picked up numerous legends of Yeshara, also called the wolf queen or the wolf-eyed queen, who seemed to have lived in this area many, many years ago along with her people. The stories say that Yeshara was afraid of the dark, and used some kind of magic to create an eternally vigilant, sleepless army, called the Shemra Azem. According to folk tales, Yeshara and the Shemra Azem were behind many of the wars in this region, including the War of the Dark Rift, the War of the Severed Dreams, and Apporian Shadow War dating all the way back to the Drankorian Era. These folk tales speak of a Drankorian fortress that imprisoned Yeshara. The official histories, however, disagree, considering the Umbral Covenant, the antagonists in the War of the Dark Rift, to be different from the enemies in previous wars. From Mabist, the party learns that a sleeping sickness is killing people, still, in villages in the Kedron valley, and some villages mysteriously vanish.

The next morning, after talking some more with Old Leo, the party decides to travel upriver and investigate the rumored Drankorian fort. With wind walk, the journey is quick, and the party camps in a ravine about five miles from the entrance to the fort to rest before the assault.

The entrance to the fort is guarded by a extensive wall. The party attacks the defenders, with Samso as a giant elephant providing a platform for Adrik to leap onto the wall from. While the elephant is pinned down by minions, Adrik pushes enemies off the top of the wall, and Blue lands a crucial paralysis spell on a shadow knight guarding the gates, as well as a fireball to clear the knight’s soldiers. Mabist strikes the knight with a critical hit smite, and Alton, on a draconic spirit summoned by Samso rains arrows on the battlefield.

Although the hard fight, the party fights through the gates. Mabist searches the ruins of the fort beyond with their arcane eye. While most of the standing buildings are ruined, and the party does not do a careful search, there are ancient Drankorian scrolls in the administrative records building. Investigation reveals that many of these are instructions for locking the portal and closes the soul compass.

Traveling deeper into the ravine from the Drankorian fort, the finds a sealed door, decorated with an incantation to Yeshara and the sleepless vigil, blocking passage. Although not locked, the party is reluctant to touch the door; Mabist sees a vision of Yeshara’s face, with no eyelids, who speaks in their mind saying “I see you, intruder. Cairn Dor will consume you.” Still, the party must continue and so they pass through the door. All who pass, however, are cursed and unable to sleep.

On the other side, they see the remains of an ancient village, with wolf-headed stone plinths in two parallel lines leading to a longhouse. Two soldiers emerge from the longhouse, and speak of taking Mabist to Cairn Dor to join the dreamers. The party quickly attacks, and defeats the soldiers without trouble. Afterword, attempting to retreat for a short rest, several of the Silver Tempests, including Mabist and Alton, cannot pass back through the sealed door. When Adrik tries to drag Mabist through, the psychic toll shreds their mind, consuming their knowledge of the guidance cantrip. During the rest, Mabist sees a vision of a young girl emerging from the longhouse, and speaking to them as if they are someone named Ilanar, talking about how Ilanar will not wake and it is scaring Yeshara, her mom.

After a rest, the party continues down the increasingly dark ravine, passing murals depicting Yeshara leading her people through and under a trilith stone, as part of some rite. Continuing down this passage, the party reaches a large room, with a trilith stone in the middle, several stone plinths with obsidian and bronze mechanisms on them surrounding it, and a greenish sigil glowing on the ceiling matching the symbol Samso found in his village years ago. The party engages in battle, as the soldiers guarding the Cleaver-Stone and the portal to Cairn Dor threaten to drag them through the portal to become dreamers and help the Yo’nari. The battle is challenging. Blue attempts to disintegrate and enemy, and fails; Mabist is clearly targeted by many of the enemies and eventually falls unconcious and is dragged through the portal. Samso hides as an earth elemental, taunting the enemies. In the end Adrik runs through the portal to rescue Mabist, and Samso’s desperate, moonlight-enhanced attacks take down the commander, while Blue, attempting to hide with invisibility, produces a wild magic surge of bright light and is knocked unconscious.

Still, at the end, the party emerges victorious by the skin of their teeth. With the enemies defeated, they use the instructions from the Drankorian administrative building to lock the portal and shut down the soul compass, presumably stopping, at least for now, further raids and disappearances. However, the Silver Tempests are in no shape to immediately run through the portal seeking Samso’s people.

Instead, they limp back to Castrella, where they pay to have the sleepless curse removed by a priest of Mos Numena, and regroup at The Laughing Gull before plotting their next move.

Events

  • Sep 17, 1748 DR: Blue arrives in Voltara with a letter for Samso about the Umbral Covenant. The Silver Tempests, with Blue, transport via plants to Urkabi, Samso’s village, and head downriver on Samso’s magic raft. Camp along the Zurrua.
  • Sep 18, 1748 DR: Samso turns the Silver Tempests to mist and the party wind walks to Castrella, arriving around noon. The group splits up to investigate and gather information, regrouping at The Laughing Gull that evening to discuss.
  • Sep 19, 1748 DR: The Silver Tempests speak to a group of orphans at The Whale’s Spout, then wind walk up the Kedron into the interior. Pass a Drankorian mile stone pointing towards the Cairn Dor guard post. Reach a ravine with a fort, and camp for the evening.
  • Sep 20, 1748 DR: Enter the fort, fighting off shadow guardians. Explore Drankorian ruins beyond and find an archive with information about locking the portal to Cairn Dor. Continue deeper into the ravine, passing a door with the seal of the wolf-eyed queen, which curses the party preventing sleep. Defeat two warriors of the Shemra Azem in a longhouse beyond. Find the standing stones of the soul compass (forming a light in the shape of the sigil that Samso has seen) and the Cleaver-Stone, which appears to be a portal to somewhere, beyond. Fight Yeshara’s lieutenant and more Shemra Azem and nearly die. Mabist is knocked unconscious and dragged through the portal; Adrik runs through to rescue them, while Samso, in earth elemental form, slays the lieutenant. Use the instructions from the Drankorian archive to lock the portal, seemingly stopping the ongoing incursion. Leave to regroup before entering Cairn Dor to try to find Samso’s village.
  • Sep 21, 1748 DR - Sep 25, 1748 DR: Limp back to Castrella, still under the curse of eternal waking from passing the sealed door.
  • Sep 26, 1748 DR - Oct 02, 1748 DR: Take rooms at The Laughing Gull, and recover in Castrella. Find a priest to remove the curse of eternal waking for a generous donation. Discuss their next moves.