Part 1: The Missing Brother

Session 1: Meeting at Riverpond

Evening, 15th Summer Prime, 498 CE

  • A young wizard named Ekhart Mayze traveled to the sleepy town of Riverpond.
  • Sanglant, a traveling monk, had also arrived in Riverpond a few days earlier, having heard that the Baron was wanting to hire some mercenaries for a job.
    • Two sellswords were waiting for a mission from the Baron as well;
      • an old stoic foreigner named Egren Otter, and
      • another impatient sellsword that stormed out of the town in frustration before anyone could get his name.
  • Revana, a druid traveling at the behest of her deity Terra, stumbled upon Riverpond.
    • She saw the Onward Inn and immediately knew whatever Terra wanted of her was in that Inn.
    • She also saw two people; a large Inquisitor and a young cleric named Sister Remy Dane.
    • Revana overheard the Inquisitor telling the cleric to find something and deliver it to him, and then left.
    • Rev and the cleric had a short conversation before entering the Onward Inn.
  • As Sang was serenading Kellen Brand, the pretty innkeeper, Ekhart entered the tavern.
    • He proceeded to hire Sang, Rev, and Egren on a mission to hunt down whatever was stealing the sheep.
    • Remy informed Ekhart that Baron Vanden had conceded to allow Remy to accompany them on the mission.
  • The five of them set out, heading to the Boathouse for quick passage across the pond.
    • They met Greg Newerth, a drunken ferryman, who ferried them across the pond.
    • As they sailed, the party noticed hundreds of tiny floating lights in the water.
    • Ferryman Newerth informed them that these little water lights had been in the town as long as anyone could remember.
    • He said that people in the town believe the lights keep them safe.
  • The party arrived at Jack Baylen’s farm.
    • Rev and Egren went to investigate the destroyed sheep’s pen.
    • Ekhart, Sang, and Remy talked to the destitute farmer.
    • They learned that whatever had been attacking his farm, was way bigger than a wolf, and it even hunted during the day.
    • No one had gotten a good look at it though.
  • Rev began to follow the beast’s tracks north, while Egren took great interest in Rev’s ability to track.
    • The group eventually reached a small, stony cliff where Rev proceeded to cast a Detect Magic spell, much to the amazement of the rest of the party.
    • Ekhart tried to assure Remy (a Cleric with the Church) that all elves could cast magic, but Remy didn’t seem particularly disturbed.
  • Rev detected a small, fist-sized object that was imbued with Transmutation magic.
    • She also noticed a great amount of magical energy coming off of Ekhart and the religious symbol hanging around Remy’s neck.
  • Egren tied a rope around a tree, Sang tossed a torch down the cliff to illuminate their way, and the party made their way down.
    • At the bottom, they saw a cave.
    • Knowing they were about to fight some kind of monster, Revana turned into a bear.
    • This, again, shocked the party.
  • As they began to travel into the cave, a massively grotesque dog tried to jump on Sang who deftly dodged out of the way.
    • They began to fight the beast.
    • Ekhart tried to cast a spell secretly, but was noticed by Egren.
    • Sometime during the fight, Remy slipped away.
  • After the beast was slain, Rev started tearing into the dog, ripping out a stone of blue quartz from the beast’s gullet.
    • As soon as the stone was removed from the dog, however, it dissolved into blood and bones.
    • Just then, Remy came out of the cave.
    • Sang noticed her bag was open and a book was shoved in haphazardly.
  • After some probing, Remy reluctantly showed the party the book the Inquisitor had instructed her to find.
    • It was the journal of a deranged priest named Brother Waybrush, who apparently had fed the dog they had just killed the magic stone Rev had found.
    • Remy appeared to be very ashamed of taking the journal and lying about it.
  • As the party was looking around the cave, Sang suddenly had an out of body experience.
    • He realized he was in the Faerealm.
    • The runes that lined the walls of the cave were glowing, and several mysterious cuts were lacerating the air.
    • As he peered into them, he saw that the cuts seemed to lead to the material plane.
    • He also saw Ekhart’s true tiefling form.
    • He eventually made his way back to the material plane, and realized that something about Ekhart and this blue quartz helped him travel into the Faerealm.
  • Rev asked her god, Terra, for guidance and received a single cryptic word ‘TORN.’
  • Ekhart paid Sang and Egren for their services and asked if they were up to travel to Old King’s Keep, a castle to the north, where the deranged Brother Waybrush was still at large, according to his journal.
    • They both agreed, while Remy said she wanted to get to the bottom of what happened to Brother Waybrush.

Session 2: Battle at Old King’s Keep

Night, 15th Summer Prime, 498 CE

  • The party decided to rest before heading out to Old King’s Keep.
    • Remy expressed regret for not heeding her father’s advice to not trust the church.
    • The party inquired about Remy’s magic, she explained that she can perform Miracles.
    • She cast Zone of Truth on the party to show off her magic.
    • Sang entered the Faerealm to examine what happened when Remy cast magic, suspecting her magic was similar to Ekhart, but found her magic seemed to have no relationship with the Faerealm.
    • While in the Faerealm, however, Sang saw red and blue energies to the north and south and knew that they belonged to very powerful beings.
  • The party went to bed.

Morning, 16th Summer Prime, 498 CE

  • The party awoke, and set out for Old King’s Keep.
  • Rev turned into forest cat to stealth around the castle for recon.
    • She discovered the dilapidated ruins of the castle.
    • In the front, she saw a young man and a goblin, both with quartz crystals jammed into their foreheads.
    • On the side, two goblins stood on a wall.
    • At the rear, she found a ruined covered wagon and a way to sneak into the castle without the boy or the goblins seeing them.
  • The party decided to sneak around back.
    • Ekhart investigated the ruined wagon and found it looked like it was recently abandoned cart that seemed to belong to a travelling troupe of some kind.
  • Sneaking into one of the towers, the party discovered a few things.
    • In a chest beside a cot, Ekhart discovered some research notes that were nearly incomprehensible.
    • Underneath the bed, Sang discovered a ring of keys while Ekhart found a small pouch containing magical crystalline quartz's with the “Suggestion” spell imbued in them.
    • Rev and Remy snuck onto the top of the tower and looked down at the two goblins guarding the wall and saw that they also had crystals embedded in their foreheads.
  • While Rev was on the wall, she suddenly heard a commotion of a man being dragged from the forest into the castle by two strong looking men, one with a large, colourful beard and the other with large muscles and a bandana on his head.
    • The party peaked out the door of the tower, and Sang noticed that the man they were carrying away was the Sellsword that stormed away the night before.
    • Egren told the party that the man’s name was Tavian Larg.
  • After the three men went into the basement of the castle, the party followed them.
    • While on the ground, Remy recognized the boy standing at the front of the castle as Heath MacFarlane, a local of Riverpond.
    • Sang used they keys he found to open the door.
    • Rev turned into a tiger and bounded inside, while the rest of the party followed.
  • Inside the basement, there were 6 people;
  • As a fight broke out, Brother Waybrush escaped in a secret tunnel under a statue of the Goddess Talena.
    • The large, muscular woman was slain by Rev.
    • The man in the bandana was knocked unconscious.
    • The smaller woman, while wielding a frying pan, was also slain by Rev.
    • The man with the colourful beard, who turned out to be a bard with magical abilities, was subdued and had his forehead crystal removed.
  • After a bit of back and forth, the man with the colourful beard told the party he could remember most of what happened but didn’t understand most of the memories.
    • He also began to mourn for his wife, who he called Wenda.
  • The party then began to make their way down the secret tunnel under the statue.
    • They exited into a large, secret cavern.
    • They then fought and killed Brother Waybrush.
    • While examining his body, Ekhart found a red quartz crystal.

Session 3: Back to Riverpond

Afternoon, 16th Summer Prime, 498 CE

  • The party returned to the chapel underneath the Old King’s Keep.
  • They talked with the leader of the Lion Troupe, the bard Bayden Tam.
    • Bayden said that he remembered what happened to him.
    • He said he wanted revenge against the church for their part in his wife’s death.
  • There was a knock on the chapel door.
  • The party decided to destroy the ruins of Old King’s Keep with fire.
  • The whole gang returned to Riverpond:
    • Ekhart, Sanglant, Revana, Egren, Remy, Tavian, Bayden, Old Zeke, Heath, and Provo.

Evening, 16th Summer Prime, 498 CE

  • The party discussed what to do with the journal of Brother Waybrush.
    • They agreed to make a copy of it and give it to Remy.
    • Remy told the party she would lie and say they went to Old King’s Keep and found nothing but a destroyed ruins.
  • Remy left to reconvene with the Inquisitor.
  • Bayden told the party he wanted to come with them to talk to the Baron.
  • While walking back, the party discussed several topics.
    • Ekhart mentioned his prophetic inklings that lead him to Riverpond.
    • Ekhart also mentioned the contents of the research notes.
      • Brother Waybrush was trying to open a portal to the Faerealm.
      • Some of his research appeared to have misinformation that would have made him inevitably fail.
    • Revana mentioned her God, Terra, told her to come here and that something was ‘tearing.’
    • Sanglant mentioned the tears fabric of the faerealm in the wolf’s den.
  • Sang decided to show the party that he could go into the Faerealm by entering it, after hearing whispers around that he assumed were from the Faerealm.
  • Sanglant entered the Faerealm.
    • There he met a massive Water Elemental, floating above Riverpond.
    • The two had a conversation about the nature of counting.
  • As Sang was in the Faerealm, his body began to shut down with cold.
    • Ekhart and Rev tried to warm him up, and eventually Ekhart woke up Sang with a light slap to the face.
  • The party then arrived Baron Vanden’s manor.
    • They explained the situation to him.
  • Bayden the Bard spoke up, mentioning that he saw someone interacting with Brother Waybrush that looked like Ekhart.
    • Ekhart confirmed that it was his brother, Cidmuir.
    • Bayden mentioned that Cidmuir was going back to a city named Ambermoor.
  • The Baron mentioned his fear of the Church, and about the happenings of the Quiet War.
    • For the past 20ish years, the Church had been bankrolling bandits in secret to destabilize the Empire.
    • The Empire, in response, hired soldiers to fight.
    • The War ended 2 years ago for unknown reasons, but there were a few things that happened as a result;
      • The Church stopped funding the banditry.
      • Emperor Alexander Falstani grew sick and died.
      • Ortelai (and by extension, the Church) began to control its own taxation.
      • The Empire is quite poor, from spending so much hiring mercenaries and losing tax money from Ortelai.
      • Many of the soldiers hired by the Empire were let go without pay or pension.
  • Baron Vanden offered Egren, Bayden, Sang, and Revana writs of knighthood.
    • In exchange, he wants them to get to the bottom of whatever the Church is up to.
    • Bayden and Egren decided to stay in the direct service of the Baron, while the party decided to travel south to Ambermoor to look for Cidmuir.
    • Revana declined the knighthood, saying she had no use for such a thing.
  • The party returned to the Onward Inn.
    • Egren, Ekhart, Rev, and Sang all began to drink.
  • Remy popped by to say goodbye.
    • The Inquisitor was satisfied with Remy’s explanation of events.
    • The two were leaving back for Ortello that night.
    • Remy said she was going to start working against the Church from the inside.
  • Sang and Kellen helped a drunk Egren to his room.
    • It was heavily implied that Sang and Kellen had sex.

Session 4: Into the Midnai Wilds

Morning, 17th Summer Prime, 498 CE

  • Ekhart, Sanglant, and Revana had breakfast with Egren.
  • Egren offered to bring a letter to Ekhart’s mother for him.
    • Ekhart was confused as to why he would write his mother a letter.
    • Egren exclaimed that he himself was a mama's boy.
  • Egren, Old Zeke, Bayden and Tavian all left for Mae Relian.
  • Sanglant entered the Faerealm again.
    • He touched Ekhart’s hand who felt it tingle like it was asleep.
    • He gently cupped the light that floated around Rev.
      • When he did, Rev felt a sickening pull into some kind of darkness.
    • He checked outside and saw the large Water Elemental, but was far away enough not to be noticed.
  • The party left for Ambermoor.
    • They eventually reached a crossroad, and turned south towards the Midnai Wilds and Ambermoor.

Afternoon, 17th Summer Prime, 498 CE

  • The party entered the Midnai Wilds.
    • The Midnai Wilds had many, extremely large trees.
    • They were large as ancient redwoods, but their branches hung low like weeping willows.
  • As they were walking, the party heard an old woman’s distressed cry.
  • They stealthily approached and noticed three bandits banging on a large stumped.
    • The bandits all had red bandanas covering their faces.
    • The stump appeared to have been converted into a woman’s house.
  • Sanglant split off, attempting to go into the Faerealm and see what he could see there.
    • As soon as he did, he was surrounded by small blue goblins that held him at spear point.
    • They wanted to take Sang to he their queen.
    • He quickly returned to the physical realm.
  • Rev turned into a bear and she and Ekhart approached the bandits.
  • The bandits saw the traveler and his bear and mistook them for aggressors and the two parties attacked.
  • A fourth bandit was eventually revealed to be an archer hiding up a nearby tree.
  • The party handily defeated the bandits.
  • The woman in the tree stump was grateful to the party for helping her.
    • Her name was Agabane.
    • She offered them 3 healing potions, a potion of Bull’s Strength, potion of Cat’s Grace, and a potion of Eagle’s Splendor.
    • She also told them that she would sell potions to them for a discount rate.
  • Agabane also had a friendly black cat that took a liking to the party.
  • Agabaned explained to the party who the bandits were.
    • They were members of the Silent, a group of disenfranchised knights.
    • She used to work with them until she heard that they had taken someone hostage and tried to random them.
    • She didn’t like their underhanded ways.
  • The party departed for Ambermoor.

Evening, 17th Summer Prime, 498 CE

  • The party made camp for the night.

Morning, 18th Summer Prime, 498 CE

  • The party woke up and set out for Ambermoor.

Afternoon, 18th Summer Prime, 498 CE

  • The party arrived at Ambermoor.
  • The town rested between the Shadowfen Thicket, a thick and gnarly looking forest, and a raised plateau with a castle on it.
  • The path sloped down to a wood gate with a guard stopping the party from entering.
    • He appeared to be openly hostile to Rev, and elves in general.
    • Sang mentioned he was a knight and the guard let the party pass without fuss.
  • Ambermoor was a Tudor style town, always in the shadows of the forest or the plateau.
  • The party found an inn to ask for more info about Ekhart’s brother.
    • They found an inn called the Windscene Tavern.
    • They began taking to the innkeeper, Ian Aether.
    • He asked Sang what kind of knight he was, who then indicated he was a mercenary knight, doing a Nobleman’s business.
  • The party asked the Innkeeper if they had seen anyone that looked like Ekhart.
    • He said he hadn’t but he HAD seen an elf a while back that reminded him of Rev.
  • Rev asked Terra about the elf, and Terra showed Rev an image of Laef, her longtime childhood friend, and a picture of jail bars.

Session 5: The Amber Court

Afternoon, 18th Summer Prime, 498 CE

  • The party talked with the Windscene Tavern keeper, Ian, for a while.
    • He explained the layout of the town.
    • He also explained that things were tense ever since someone from Ambermoor Keep was kidnapped by the Silent.
  • The party then left for Ambermoor keep to try and find Laef.
  • Lady Zara Adir, the Count of Ambermoor’s eldest daughter, walked into town as they entered the keep.
  • The party met with Dame Ira, the Master-at-arms at Ambermoor, and convinced her to let them speak with Laef.
  • They met Laef in the stockades, under Ambermoor Keep.
    • She confessed to Rev that she was a walker, on a mission to save the world.
    • She was investigating the Silent, when she was found by guards and mistaken for a member.
    • The guards that arrested her claimed that she was alone.
    • Laef insists there was a whole bandit camp where she was picked up.
  • Dame Ira, not understanding Rev and Laef’s conversation about ‘being a walker’ no longer trusted the party.
    • She escorted them out of the stockades.
  • Ekhart decided to sit in on the court, to see what the Count was like.
    • Rev and Sang followed.
  • Count Adir and his middle daughter were hearing issues the townspeople were having.
    • Count Adir appears to be giving level-headed justice to the people.
    • Lady Amelia seemed to be watching and learning from her father.
  • As they were watching court, Lady Gwendalyn, Count Adir’s youngest daughter, joined the party to talk.
    • She mentioned that she was a Silent sympathizer.
    • She also mentioned that a boy from the Church had been kidnapped from the Keep.
  • Ekhart, thinking the church boy that was kidnapped was his brother, joined the queue to ask Count Adir a question.
    • Count Adir confirmed Cidmuir was the person who was kidnapped.
    • He also said that he would give Laef a fair trial.
    • He explained that the investigation had been going poorly because there are Silent sympathizers among the city guard.
  • The party left to explore Cidmuir’s room.
    • Nothing seemed out of place.
    • There were no signs of forced entry.
  • Ekhart also found more research about opening a portal to the Faerealm.
    • Opening a portal apparently takes a lot of physical room to perform.
  • The party left the keep to find guards responsible for arresting Laef.

Session 6: On Cidmuir's Trail

Evening, 18th Summer Prime, 498 CE

  • The party followed some guards to a bar popular with guards from Ambermoor keep; The Sticky Goose.
  • Upon arrival, they found a table near the guards they were following.
  • After listening to their conversation for a bit, Revana went to their table to talk.
    • She asked them about their arresting of Laef.
    • They told her that they did find Laef by herself.
    • They also said that Laef, more or less, turned herself in.
  • Revana felt as though the guards were telling the truth, and that they were rather intimidated by her.
  • The party then decided to return to the Windscene Tavern to regroup.
  • As they entered, a cat (which Ekhart later identified as Agabane’s cat, Aloysius) was leaving the Tavern.
  • Ian, the barkeep, told the party that a package had arrived for them.
  • Inside, there was a note from Agabane explaining she had created a new type of potion.
  • Revana then meditated and spoke to Terra.
    • She saw a vision of her in greyscale, and Laef in focus on in colour.
    • Then, it flipped, and she was in colour and Laef was in grayscale.
    • Revana reasoned that Laef had fallen out of favour from Terra for some reason.
  • Ekhart looked through Cidmuir’s notes.
    • They were very practical notes for creating a portal to the Faerealm.
    • It required a large space, and also a large deposit of amethyst.

Morning, 19th Summer Prime, 498 CE

  • The party woke, exhausted from any other leads, decided to head into the Shadowfen Thicket to find the Silent camp and Cidmuir themselves.
  • As they were traveling toward the edge of town, they came upon a large, barrel chested man.
  • The man was Bravick Eene, the Guildmaster and Founder of the Foresters Guild.
  • He offered to take the party into the Shadowfen Thicket, where some of his guild members had spotted the Silent before.
  • Sanglant began to crush heavy on Bravick.

Afternoon, 19th Summer Prime, 498 CE

  • The party and Bravick arrived at a clearing in the Shadowfen Thicket.
  • He told the party he would wait for 6 hours for them to return.
  • Bravick offered his protective services for an additional fee, which apparently broke Sanglant’s heart who realized that Bravick was only interested in being paid, and not getting laid.
  • Ekhart, Sanglant, and Revana traveled an hour or so into the forest, and eventually found the Silent Camp.
  • It was a depressed clearing, with fortifications around it and a guard tower looking out for intruders.
  • Revana turned into a ferret and scurried into the camp to see if she could find Cidmuir.
    • In one of the tents, she found Cid talking with the Silent leader.
    • The Silent leader appeared visibly annoyed with Cid, saying that they were putting themselves in great danger for him.
    • Cid appeared flippant about the man’s concerns, assuring him that whatever Cid was doing would help out the Silent’s cause more than he could imagine.
  • When Rev returned, she offered Ekhart to send Cid a message with the Animal Message spell.
    • Ekhart sent a message explaining that he was here, and was offering Cid help.
    • Cid replied with a note around a squirrel’s neck that told Ekhart to create a distraction so that he could “see some really cool.”

Session 7: Uun, the Shadow Elemental

Afternoon, 19th Summer Prime, 498 CE

  • Ekhart, Revana, and Sang discussed the best way to make a distraction for Cid.
    • They eventually decided on Ekhart casting a thunder spell that caused damage all through the camp.
  • Before anyone could react, Cidmuir cast a spell from his tent that seemed to open up a gate to the Faerealm.
  • Immediately, a giant shadow enveloped the camp and turned the Silent bandits turning them into shadow creatures.
  • The party then began to fight several Shadow Mephits (the Silent bandits) and one Shadow Knight (the Silent leader).
  • After a long grueling battle, the party finally defeated the shadow creatures.
  • Ekhart woke up Cidmuir from his concentration, which caused the gate to close.
    • For some reason, this caused Sanglant to shoot into the Faerealm.
    • This also caused Revana to go unconscious.
  • Sang realized he was in the Faerealm.
    • He also realized he had never REALLY been to the Faerealm before, and had only been projecting his spirit into it, but now he was really there.
    • He saw a lot of crazy things, including flowers that turned into butterflies, and a giant whale that swam through the sky.
    • Uun explained that he was a Shadow elemental, which meant he was made of pure conflict. He only wanted to test other in battle and had no desire to fight Sang himself.
    • The two talked briefly about the nature of the Faerealm, and Uun mentioned that Sang stunk of the Water fae he had met before, and noted that he had been marked by both her and now him.
  • Revana woke up in a vision.
    • She was in the knot of a giant tree, with a large crystal heart covered in vines.
    • As she tried to touch the crystal heart, she felt something stirring awake.
    • She turned around and looked out the exit of the knot, she was greeted by the eye of a giant creature the size of the horizon.
    • The creature identified itself as Terra, Rev’s goddess.
    • Rev asked what has been going on with the Sleeper, and Terra said that she has not been in contact with any Sleeper for hundreds of years.
    • Terra explained that someone was trying to rip her apart, and this would kill her.
    • Terra told Rev that she is not first in Laef’s heart, which is why Rev became her primary walker.
    • She told Rev to look for the “Man Dressed in Flame”.
  • Ekhart and Cidmuir were left to talk alone.
    • Cid explained where he had been for the past few months.
    • He had left the University to look for funding for his research to open a gate to the Faerealm, leaving because their mother did not approve of the idea.
    • He met Laef in a city outside of Ortello, who explained that she was looking to stop someone who was trying to destroy the world.
    • Cid infiltrated the Church, posing as a priest and faking his credentials.
    • He got in contact with Cardinal Redrose, and learned of his plans to “close the Faerealm.” Cid began his research in earnest, pretending to be working for Cardinal Redrose.
    • Cardinal Redrose grew impatient with Cid’s progress, so demanded another priest begin working on it.
    • Cid gave Brother Waybrush some bad research notes, and two quartz crystals with what he thought were the most harmless spells; Continual Flame, and Enlarge/Reduce.
    • After his research went nowhere, Cid gave Brother Waybrush some more crystals, a broken caster’s quartz that used to contain the Suggestion spell, but was useless now that it was broken (as far as Cid thought).
    • Cid then found that there was a large amethyst deposit in the Shadowfen thicket so he took up residence in Ambermoor to finish his research.
    • When Cardinal Redrose called him back to Ortello, Cid met with the Silent and convinced them to kidnap him, in exchange he would help them succeed at toppling the Ambermoorean government.
    • As the Ambermoor guards drew close, Laef offered her service to give herself up to the guards to prevent them from finding the Silent camp.
  • Ekhart then fed his healing potion to Laef, which caused her to wake up.
  • Cidmuir cast a spell that summoned Sang back into the physical world.
  • Four of them left the Silent camp and met back up with Bravick, and returned to Ambermoor.

Evening, 19th Summer Prime, 498 CE

  • The party, along with Cid and Bravick, returned to Ambermoor.
  • Cid and Rev left to get Laef out of prison, and Ekhart and Sang returned to the Windscene Tavern.
  • Cid met with Lady Zara Adir, the Count Adir’s eldest daughter, and had Laef freed from prison.