Please note that most of these summaries are based on adventures that are available for download on the internet. These summaries may contain spoilers about the content of those adventures.
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Session 36 Ead/Cin |
Harvest of Evil (modified version of D&D adventure) |
| Brenna's adventurers leave the village of Peliene and the Kostas Brothers and begin to travel south thorugh Emphidor towards Mursinos. Late one afternoon they meet a villager some distance outside the village of Tegea. The villager seems unusually focussed on keeping an eye out for intruders, and when questioned reveals that "the Master" set him to watch the path. After some discussion, the adventurers force their way past the villager and travel on to Tegea, where they are confronted by five heavily armed men-at-arms who come out of the village inn. The group's captain claims the village is plague-ridden and tells the adventurers not to enter. Taliriana fascinates the men-at-arms with a kaleidoscope of colours, but the patterns don't lower their guard enough to allow Jonyn to enter peacefully. The adventurers quickly overcome the men-at-arms, killing one and subduing the others. Inside the inn the adventurers are warned by the inn-keeper that "the Master" is resting below in the cellar. The inn-keeper flees before the adventurers enter the cellar and confront Lord Delano of Kossove. Lord Delano's pallor and frightful aura mark him as one of the walking dead, and his arrogance marks him as a noble. Lord Delano surprises some of the adventurers with his hostility to pagan magic and Taliriana. He battles the adventurers when they refuse to serve him, and Cinder destroys him with a powerful spell. They then free the villagers from the houses they are locked in, and the villagers explain that "the Master" and his men-at-arms came to their village two days ago, killing one villager and cowing the rest. As night has fallen, the adventurers rush to the cemetary and dismember the villager when he starts to rise as an undead monster. The villagers sent out by Lord Delano to watch for intruders return during the night and the next morning. The four surviving men-at-arms ransom their lives and armour from the villagers by giving up their well-crafted longswords, and go on their way a day before Brenna's adventurers leave. Late Summer 1396 AUC | |
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Session 37 Ead/Cin |
Road to Oblivion (modified version of D&D adventure) |
| Lady Brenna's investigations have established that Bomfur Kildare, the Dwarven trader who tricked Ulfgar into touching a sphere of transference, is lying low in northern Kevland. Brenna's adventurers travel north to find Bomfur so that they can question him about his involvement in Lord Anton Garan's schemes. One day, while passing through the town of Ragusa at lunchtime, they meet a tall handsome man with hair so red that it almost appears to be flames. He introduces himself as Migos Fehr, and asks Cinder if they have met before. Although she hasn't, Brenna's adventurers stop to have lunch with Migos. Migos is the champion of the small Peronnian barony of Eia, and is travelling east to meet his brother, Vigor. Cinder and Migos have a slight physical similarity, possibly enough to suggest they are distant relations, and Cinder gives him directions to her family's home so that he can check with them. She also tells him that she has a shop in Merin. Brenna's adventurers continue northwards. When they reach the village where Bomfur was staying, they learn that he fled north into the foothills and mountains of Peronnia only two days earlier. Brenna's adventurers give chase, and gradually reduce Bomfur's lead over the next few days. One day, there is an earthquake. That night, at the village of Oring, Brenna's adventurers learn that Bomfur was there the night before. The next day, they follow him along a mountain trail to the next village. Partway through the day, they find that the earthquake has caused the top of a mountain to come down across the road, blocking the road. The avalanche also appears to have revealed a side path, which has been marked with a signpost as leading to "Oblivion". Bomfur's trail leads down the side path, so Brenna's adventurers follow. The path appears to have once been the floor of a tunnel or cavern, and leads into a hidden and forested valley. There are signs that something has been knocking over and crushing trees throughout the valley, and flattening the ground. Brenna's adventurers find and free a group of invisible pixies from an invisible fox of force. Renault and Claret, the pixies' leaders, explain that they were trapped by the Juggernaut, a terrible monster constructed from stone that appeared after the earthquake. They also confirm that they saw Bomfur yesterday, that he claimed to be a powerful sorcerer, and they used magic arrows to remove his memories so he would help the town of Oblivion defeat the Juggernaut. Brenna's adventurers continue on towards the town, stopping along the way to help a troll dressed as a farmer defeat a band of five humans wearing the uniforms of a minor Kevish baron. Harbort, the captain of the group, surrenders after two of his four soldiers are too wounded to fight on. He isn't frightened by Cinder's threats of fiery pain, but his soldiers are, and they admit that they are robbers, not soldiers. The troll introduces himself as Aiax, and is very worried when the adventurers tell him that the road to Oblivion is obvious and open. He leads Brenna's adventurers and their prisoners to the town of Oblivion to tell the Four Graces. Parts of the town have been crushed and flattened in the same way that parts of the woods were ruined. The Four Graces are beautiful women, each twice Jonyn's height. The Four Graces offer the robbers a choice between punishment and drinking the waters of the Spring of Lethe, and they agree to drink. Brenna's adventurers explain why they have come, and the Graces call for Anacreon the healer to bring the new dwarf, Durin II, from the hospice. Bomfur is brought to the Graces' hall by Anacreon, a tall and emaciated man with blood-red skin and bony white vestigial wings who is constantly on fire and who speaks with a rasping voice. Bomfur doesn't remember anything of his past, but the Graces agree that the adventurers can try to restore his memories if they first destroy the Juggernaut. Brenna's adventurers stay in Oblivion for the night. Ulfgar asks Anacreon if he can remove the enchanted headband, but Anacreon tells Ufgar that he can read his mind and refuses to do so. The next morning, Brenna's adventurers prepare, then attack and destroy the Juggernaut with their adamantine weapons. Cinder tries to restore Bomfur's memories with her magics, but the power of the pixie's arrow is too strong. Taliriana persuades a pixie to give her an arrow of memory restoration, restoring Bomfur's memories. When questioned, he explains that he owed Ildyr a favour for helping him through a financial crisis years earlier, and that he knew Gaberk from their period of service together during the Great War. Bomfur disavows any knowledge of Lord Anton and Gaberk's plan, and chooses to drink from the Spring of Lethe in the hope that Ildyr cannot find him. The Graces ask Brenna's adventurers to drink a modified syrup of the waters of Lethe so that they forget the location of Oblivion, but the adventurers refuse. The Graces accept their refusal, but warn them that they will be punished if they give away the location of the hidden valley. Brenna's adventurers farewell Durin II, Aiax, Anacreon, and Toth (formerly Harbort) and leave Oblivion along the now-hidden path. Early Autumn 1396 AUC | |
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Session 38 Ead/Cin |
Oasis part one (modified version of Dragon Warriors adventure) |
| Brenna's adventurers return to the village of Oring. They decide to use magic to return to Merin, and employ a youth named Stephan to bring their horses back to Manderley Hall. Cinder's transports them all back to Merin. That night, Cinder begins to look for Derrin and Yara using her scrying brazier. She finds Derrin being treated for a beating and Yara in a luxurious room with many other women, but isn't able to watch either of them for as long as she would like. She also doesn't understand the language they are speaking. Cinder reports her findings to the others the next day. She tries again the next night, watching not just Derrin and Yara but also the vendor Derrin meets at a market and the other women Yara spends all her time with, and again reports her findings to the others. Taliriana suggests that Marcus speak all the languages he knows to Cinder, and she recognises Nascerine as the mystery language. Cinder tries a third night, and observes Yara sitting with an invisible person smoking on a long pipe. When Yara looks directly at her, Cinder extinguishes the flames. She restarts her magic fire later, finding Yara chained to a wall in a cell. Cinder continues to watch her late into the night, but her magic is fickle and the flames go out before she's watched Yara for as long as she wishes. The others grow worried when Cinder doesn't meet them at Manderley Hall that morning, and come into Merin to visit her shop. They find a young courier waiting at her door, and Marcus signs for the letter. It contains the text of an ancient prophecy, The Presage of Forms, and an annotation that reads, "The prophecy is talking about us." Not reassured by the note, Marcus opens the locked door and they check inside, finding Cinder asleep. They leave her the note, with an additional note from Marcus telling her they are waiting at a nearby Kattar coffee house. When she wakes, Cinder reads the note and joins them at the coffee house. She begins her explanations with, "I scoped some places out, but I think I might have been seen," and the Kattar waiters politely give the adventurers' table a wide berth. While they weigh up what to do next, Ulfgar notices an invisible portal watching Cinder and looking over the rest of the group. When told, Cinder immediately casts a spell that prevents all magic working near her. Brenna's adventurers decide to go and rescue Derrin and Yara immediately. Cinder transports them to the marketplace she saw two nights earlier, and they hide in an alley while Marcus buys robes and headscarves to help conceal their identities. They go to the vendor Cinder saw talking with Derrin, and he tells them Derrin is a slave of the Sultan's Doctor. He also tells them that foreigners need to have papers to travel freely in the city of Amsaim, and finds them some low-lives who can help them "find" the papers they need. The low-lives take them to the Blue Parrot, where they pay an obese Kattar named Ali Hassan to forge papers for all of them. Ulfgar has to pretend to be a slave, as the war with Harogarn means that dwarves never come to Amsaim, capital of Opalar, except as slaves. Armed with appropriate travel papers, Brenna's adventurers got directions to the Sultan's Doctor's palace. Marcus and Cinder pass the guards by claiming to have a message for Derrin, and the other four attempt to sneak in behind them while invisible. The guards hear Jonyn, who freezes in place. Unfortunately, Taliriana and the others sneak on, and Jonyn becomes visible when they move too far away. Jonyn shows the guards his papers, but doesn't let go when they try to take his papers, which end up torn in half. Unable to understand what they are saying, Jonyn retreats into the street, and Cinder summons a fire elemental to distract the guards. It does so very well until a much larger fire elemental flies out from another palace and confronts Cinder's elemental. They speak in the language of fire: the larger elemental asks, "What are you doing here, breaking the law of the prince of flames?" and Cinder's elemental responds, "I was forced to come here by a human mage," at which point Cinder ends her spell and her elemental disappears. The larger elemental also disappears, presumably following it elsewhere. Meanwhile, Marcus finds a queue of poor, sick people stretching around the cloistered edge of a courtyard. He asks for Derrin, who comes out of the room at the head of the queue carrying a bowl of water and some bandages. Eventually, all of Brenna's adventurers are reunited with Derrin, who explains what happened to Yara and himself. They found Yara's home village destroyed by nomad raiders, who captured them, lost them to a nomad rescue party that also rescued Hrothr, a prince of the Sitai Oshkosa who can take the form of a horse, were then betrayed by an enemy of Hrothr and sold along with "Hrothi" the horse to another group of nomads, who sold them to Opalarian slavers, who gave them as gifts to the Sultan of Opalar, who kept Yara for his harem, gave Hrothi to Jusuf Hafiz, Captain of his palace guard, and gave Derrin to Sulafat Rukbat, the Sultan's personal physician. However, Captain Jusuf recently arrested Doctor Sulfat as a spy for Mazarid, so the Doctor's daughter, Tarazed Rukbat, has inherited his position as the Sultan's physician. Brenna's adventurers stay with Derrin in Tarazed's palace, and plan their next course of action. Early Autumn 1396 AUC | |
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Session 39 Ead/Cin |
Oasis
part two (modified version of Dragon Warriors adventure) and |
| Brenna's adventurers decide that the best course of action is to openly approach the authorities, admit that they were spying on the palace using magic, and try to buy Yara's freedom. The next day, Brenna's adventurers lie low at Tarazed's palace and stay out of trouble, while Tarazed is called to the palace to tend to the ailing Sultan. While there, she has no difficulty arranging for Brenna's adventurers to meet with one of the Vizier's assistants, Fahr Usamah, on the following day when she explains that they are the foreigners from Teran responsible for accidentally scrying on the Sultan's bedchamber. She also learns that her father hasn't been charged with any specific instances of espionage as yet, and no date has been set for an initial hearing into the charge. The Sultan is seriously ill because of age-related and magically untreatable poor health, and there are rumours that he has been using magic herbs and medicines to extend his life, and is expected to die soon without Sulafat's specialised knowledge. Yara has apparently been seriously punished for the possible danger she's exposed the Sultan to, and may even be executed. The next day, Tarazed takes Brenna's adventurers and Derrin to meet with Fahr Usamah, who takes their statements about accidentally spying on the Sultan's bedchamber. They also give him the money he needs to make arrangements for Yara's punishment to be reduced from death to dishonourable exclusion from the Harem and into their custody. That evening, a frightened Yara is delivered to Tarazed's palace by carriage, and Marcus is given a certificate making him Yara's owner and master. The certificate also warns him that, as she was part of the Sultan's Harem, if she does anything that would dishonour the Sultan he is also liable to be executed. Yara is very relieved to be among friends and familiar faces once more. The next day, Jonyn and Macus go to the bishop's cathedral to watch Captain Jusuf Hafiz attend church, hoping to talk with him about Hrothi. Jusuf gives one of the readings from the Life of Akabah the Illuminate, and after the service joins the Kattar bishop in the cathedral square to minister to the poor and heal the sick with his touch. During the procession from the altar to the cathedral square, Jusuf notices Jonyn, and while Jusuf is with the bishop a Kattar from the Captain's escort asks Jonyn and Marcus to wait and meet with the Captain when he is finished. They talk while they wait with the multilingual Kattar, who is named Ruon. When Captain Jusuf joins them, he talks mostly with Jonyn, who he recognises as a fellow soldier of God. Jusuf gives Jonyn a gift of the holy books of the Tashim Understanding, written in Low Bacchile and encased in silvered covers, and compliments Jonyn on his cloak, which is embroidered with the livery of the "most noble" Order of the Rose. First Marcus, then Jonyn, realise that Jusuf wants to own the cloak. Jonyn manages to offer to exchange his cloak for Hrothi, though Marcus thinks Jonyn is losing out badly on the exchange. Hrothi is delivered to the square with Jusuf's own saddle, bridle and bit, all of which are covered in gold and precious gems. Jusuf is very pleased with his new cloak, which he wears, and Jonyn rides Hrothi back to Tarazed's palace, where he transforms in private back into Hrothr. Cinder uses magic to transport Derrin, Yara and Hrothr back to Merin before anyone is kidnapped, and Taliriana goes with them. However, Cinder and Taliriana do not return straightaway, as they promised. Instead, Taliriana finds Marcus using a magic mirror and talks with him. She explains that they didn't return to Merin, but arrived in a tower on an island in a still sea, where Cinder and Hrothr succumbed to magic and were frozen. Taliriana freed Hrothr before he froze solid, but Cinder appears to have possibly been turned into ice. They've met a Kattar bard named Gulin Murth, who has a similar story of trying to travel through the spirit-world using magic and of arriving at the tower instead, and who's been living on sultanas he's been enchanting with magic. There's a many-headed fire-breathing hydra guarding the exit at the bottom of the tower, and apparently there's mask-wearing women guarding the exit at the top. Taliriana promises to keep in contact using the magic mirror. The other adventurers begin to try and locate the tower. Tarazed finds a local sage who identifies their description as the tower of Ustran Sukla, a wicked sorcerer who trapped other sorcerers in his magic tower on the Sea of Rhun, then robbed and killed them. Ustran was killed several years ago when he was trapped outside his tower by the Lord of Flame, one of the Sultan's elemental allies.That evening, Taliriana contacts the others again and tells them everyone (except Cinder, who's still an ice-statue) is fine, that they made friends with Pan Mei and Ananda (though Gulin fled and hid), that with Pan Mei and Ananda's help they killed a snake-woman guarding a magic crystal at the top of the tower and shattered the crystal. She also tells the adventurers that they're now able to leave, but that everyone is going to stay with Pan Mei forever. The other adventurers don't find this news reassuring, and make plans to ride towards the Sea of Rhun. They trade many of their potions and scrolls for Ibis feathers that will transform into boats, and Tarazed arranges for them to have fast riding horses. The next morning, Taliriana contacts the adventurers again. This time she tells them that Pan Mei has gone back to her home in Chiang Long to collect food for them all, that she took off Ananda's mask as a surprise and Ananda now wants to kill Pan Mei for tricking her into wearing the mask. When questioned, Taliriana still wants to stay with Pan Mei forever, even if it means never seeing her cannons again, but she is convinced something is wrong with her if she doesn't want to see her cannons again and uses magic to break Pan Mei's hold over her. Taliriana plans to work with Ananda to free the others, locate the still-hiding Gulin, and ambush Pan Mei when she returns. The other adventurers ride south from Amsaim along the Isis River for the day. While they travel, Taliriana conacts them a fourth time to let them know that they drove off Pan Mei with difficulty, as Taliriana couldn't overcome Pan Mei's control over Hrothr and Derrin had to persuade him not to fight, and that Pan Mei fled back to Chiang Long swearing to take revenge on them all. Taliriana tells them she plans to try to thaw out Cinder and a frozen unicorn as well, before they starve to death. That night, while the others camp by the shores of the Isis, Cinder appears in slightly singed robes with Taliriana, Derrin, Yara, Hrothr, Gulin Murth, Ananda (a beautiful fey Kattar) and a unicorn. After the reunion, Gulin, Ananda and the unicorn leave to make their own way back to the Cufa in Minj and to Durpar in Batubatan. Cinder transports everyone else back to her shop in Merin. Cinder prepares to spend the evening returning Derrin and Hrothr to their homes, while Yara goes with Marcus (the only one among Brenna's adventurers who speaks her native language, Wemben) to stay at his house and the other four return to Manderley Hall and rest in familiar surroundings. Early Autumn 1396 AUC | |
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Session 40 Ead/Cin |
Desert Sands (modified version of D&D adventure) |
| Cinder returns Derrin and Hrothr to their homes in Vestad and among the Sitai Oshkosa. Brenna's adventurers remain in Teran for two days, returning to Amsaim on the third day. Tarazed tells them that she has learned that the Sultan ordered her father's arrest, that Captain Jusuf is responsible for organising the trial, and that the Sultan seems peeved that the trial hasn't commenced. Tarazed is called back to Sultan's palace, where the Sultan is close to death. With Marcus' help, Jonyn sends a letter to Captain Jusuf asking about the Sultan's health and seeking an appointment to discuss the Doctor's situation. Jusuf sends a response that reads, "My dear fellow in God's service, I too fear for our noble Sultan's future, and I hope that God's will shall be done. I cannot spare time to meet with you, but I may send a servant with a token to you soon. Please do all you can to assist them. Your friend, Jusuf." That night, a "servant of Tarazed, sent to collect necessary medical equipment" arrives at the Doctor's palace wearing the cloak of the Order of the Rose that Jonyn gave to Captain Jusuf. The servant reveals that she is Princess Natara, and has been sent to the adventurers to be hidden from the arcane servants of her father, the Sultan. Cinder teleports away with the other adventurers and Princess Natara in an attempt to throw off anyone looking for the Princess with magic. The first place they go to is the Kostas Brothers' barn in northern Emphidor, where most of them find the sounds of werewolves howling outside the farm unnerving. Cinder teleports the group away to the ruined temple of Woten the sky-god on the island of Mawddath, in Lake Delyen on the southern edge of Vestad. The group are attacked by two huge pale-white bears, and during the battle the Princess is kidnapped away by a fire spirit from Opalar. After the two bears are slain, Brenna's adventurers teleport back to Merin, where Cinder searches for the Princess with her magic. She finds the Princess chained to a badly weathered black obelisk in a desert. Brenna's adventurers teleport a fourth time to the obelisk, but the Princess is nowhere to be found. They do, however, find the footprints of four giant-sized people nearby, and follow them to a large metal door in a hillside. Jonyn's axe fails to cut through the metal of the door, but the adventurers open them with magic. They confront four giants with coal-black skin and fiery hair who attempt to hold them off for their master, Vythenus. When the battle turns against them, the giants call out for aid, and Vythenus grants them three wishes. The wishes are not enough to overcome the adventurers, who account for the last of the giants in Vythenus' presence. Vythenus half-heartedly asserts that they have foiled him despite his best efforts and that he cannot stop them rescuing the Princess from the next room, then teleports away to report his failure to his lord and master. The adventurers are somewhat surprised to find Princess Natara in the next room, where Vythenus said she would be. They return her to Amsaim, where Princess Natara succeeds her father as Sultan following his "death". They learn that the Sultan has not actually died, but was instead reincarnated into a youth by his personal sorcerer, Malik El-Djinn, and both men driven off by Captain Jusuf and some like-minded God-fearing allies. Doctor Sulafat Rukbut was arrested because he overheard the Sultan describing a part of his nefarious scheme during a bout of fever. Brenna's adventurers return to Teran once Sultan Natara withdraws the charges against Sulafat and restores his freedom. Early Autumn to Autumn 1396 AUC | |
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Session 41 Ead/Cin |
Tiger's Palace (modified version of D&D adventure) |
| With the help of Lady Brenna's connections and influence, the adventurers gather leads on Lord Anton Garan's schemes. During this time, Cinder is visited by Vigor Fehr, Migos' brother, and his friend Rashen Dueth. Vigos and Rashen tell Cinder that she has the opportunity to join them and Migos in fulfilling an ancient prophecy, the Presage of Forms. Cinder agrees to join them when it's time to fulfil the prophecy. In one of his searches of the library at Threehills Manor, Marcus finds an annotated geography of the Nenian Mountains in which Lord Anton noted that he sent Gaberk on a secret mission to an exhausted mithril mine near the southwestern border of Thurander ten years ago. As western Thurander is where the Goblins of Krarth and the Dwarves of Thurander and Dorrain are fighting The Great War, Brenna's adventurers decide that this is a lead worth investigating. They leave Merin for northwestern Vestad early in winter, arriving at the village of Paderborn after almost four weeks of travelling. From Paderborn, they travel northwest across "the Shore" and into the Nenian Mountains. A week later, they reach the entrance to the abandoned mine. They enter the mine, and after only two kilometers are attacked by a beautiful stone statue. After destroying the statue, they proceed on concealed by magic, and find a group of frightened and unarmed goblins huddled together. Ulfgar charges forward to attack, only to discover with his first blow that the True God considers attacking these Goblins to be harming innocents. Weakened by the debilitating pain of his constricting headband, Ulfgar attacks a second time to see if the magic of the circlet has worn off, and learns painfully that it has not. One of the goblins uses subtle magics to encourage Marcus to help the other goblins protect him from Ulfgar, something Marcus is more than willing to do. When the other adventurers threaten the goblin, he retaliates with lightning and renders Jonyn feeble-witted. Eventually, Cinder suppresses all the magic around her, breaking the goblin's control over Marcus and the other goblins and revealing that "he" is actually a Kattar woman. The woman, Bishana Bhaga, successfully bargains for her freedom and her belongings in exchange for restoring Jonyn's wits and handling over a precious vase from Khitai. Led by their captains, Geirrod and Suttung, the goblin warband pledge to serve Cinder instead of Bishana, who bewitched them with her magics when they were passing through the mine on the the journey south to Krarth. The goblins agree to return north to The Great War and search out the current location of Lord Anton, who they believe they recognise as a human sorcerer working with their leaders to drive back the dwarves. Autumn to Winter 1396 AUC | |
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Session 42 Ead/Cin |
Black Water (modified version of D&D adventure) |
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Brenna's adventurers return to Paderborn to wait for Cinder's goblins to return north and carry out their investigations. At Paderborn, they discover that a Black-Robed Man on a black horse dug up Tasha the Royal Sacrifice's golden sarcophagus from the cemetary with the help of a large red-skinned black-winged troll, four dwarves, and four humans. Of the group, only the troll was recognised as the bog-monster of the Marsh of Chelimber to the west. Brenna's adventurers travel west to question the bog-monster, in case the Black-Robed Man was Lord Anton. After three days, they reach the village of Essen on the edge of the Marsh, where the Flint family have just been brutally murdered. The village headman, Dengram Olmaris, claims that the murderers are from Werden, a nearby village that's been feuding with Essen for more than a generation. Sceptical that villagers would rip people apart and take their bones, Brenna's adventurers question Selka, one of the local hunters. She tells them about a hunting party that was recently killed when they went too close to a sod house on an island in the Marsh, and gives them directions in exchange for Eadric's silvered dagger "that will hurt Petkenaks". Marcus uses his ibis feather from Amsaim, and it turns into an ibis-boat similar to the swan-boat from Mawddath. Brenna's adventurers take the ibis-boat to the island, where Eadric flies ahead and spies on the troll in his home, grinding bones in a mortar & pestle and baking bread. The others follow on foot, and when they draw near the house are attacked by a massive wyrm with a dragon-like head that rears up out of the water. The wyrm drags Taliriana into the water. Jonyn dives in after Taliriana before she uses magic to teleport back to the island, and the wyrm almost kills Jonyn before the others can drag him to shore. While the other four battle the Dread Wyrm, Eadric and Marcus battle the troll, who calls himself Krain the Slayer and utters a Word of Power that briefly stuns everyone except Taliriana, including the wyrm. The wyrm takes Ulfgar underwater, and Ulfgar manages to kill it before he starts to drown and loses consciousness. Cinder drives in and rescues Ulfgar while Marcus strikes the final blow that kills Krain. Brenna's adventurers take Krain's head so that they can show it to the villagers of Essen and convince them that the murderer was the bog-monster. The ibis-boat returns them to shore, where Marcus waits uncomfortably for the magic that animates it to end. While they wait, Marcus talks with the ibis-boat, and it tells him it wishes it could have swam on the sea. Marcus tells the ibis-boat he's sorry it won't have that chance and that it's free now to do what it wants. Somehow, his sorrow and generosity lets the ibis-boat turns into a real bird. Winter 1396 AUC |