Having woken up, the group snooped around a little, found Lyra’s diary, and determined she was dead but Aldor (her beau) was alive at Fort Victor. As they discussed what they found, there was a strike of lightning, a microburst, and then Osysa and the rats… were gone.
Everyone armoured back up as Stubby cast Detect Magic and realized everything was covered in Illusion and Conjruation. Also, much to Rinn’s surprise, he and Fisch were able too communicate in Primordial, which Fisch said was the original language of his people.
After finding a note to Tāmari (and leaving one in return), they understood that Osysa had left on purpose:
Your future is your own. Your path is your own. Your choices are your own. I will see you again at the End.
Osysa’s note to Tāmarai.
Behind Osysa’s bed area was a secret/hidden stairway that led most of the way back up to the Take. It was about 8 or 10 feet short. Fisch handed each person up, starting with Rinn, who thought he saw someone … but after everyone got up (Fisch jumped) there was nothing.
The group decided to head to the temple of the Raven Queen. There was an uneventful walk across the city, through the safe bits, until they neared where the temple was. Preceded by some … chunks of the temple (black obsidian littered the landscape), they finally arrived at the temple. Or … Where it was.
Where the Raven Queen’s temple once stood, is a gaping hole. It’s almost as if a giant creature reached from the heavens and, using their fingers, scraped the temple itself from the ground, leaving only this smoking hole.
Cheerful no? Using Sentry, Stubby’s bird device, they found the stairs down, and walked the 30-ish feet to the bottom of the hole. It seemed like a ‘middle’ floor of the old temple was partly left behind. Maybe it fell out of the hand of whatever scooped up the temple. Maybe it fell back to earth after an explosion. Hard to say…
And there, just beyond that part-floor, were more steps leading further down.
Stubby, before they went down to the tomb, wanted to find the blood bath. Fisch had said it was empty, but to everyone’s surprise, it was full now! So Stubby decided to jump into the bath.
As she held her breath, just before her lungs burst, the crow rom New Vasselheim spoke to her. The Raven Queen had no ulterior motives to convince Stubby to become her Champion. Vex had suffered enough, and if this was what Stubby truly wished, then perhaps, but otherwise Stubby had her own path to follow.
The Raven Queen herself came to talk to Stubby. The ‘quest’ was simple – find the Sword of Kas and destroy it to right the timelines. Sounds easy…. Except to do that, they would have to descend into the catacombs. While the Raven Queen felt Stubby was the best person so solve this predicament, and much of it (was implied to be) an irrevocable point in time, there were others who could also succeed. After all, Stubby had siblings.
When Stubby emerged from the water, all could see the flickering light of the Raven Queen’s temple from two timelines.
Or as Fisch put it “Ow, my head.”
Players
- Rinn Shrike – Half-elf Sorcerer/Rogue (Storm Sorcery)
- Stubby – Half-elf Artificer/Artillerist
- Tāmarai Shikomi – Gnome Bard (College of Lore)
NPCs
- Fisch – Bear Fighter (Champion)