# 82_20210704 Spellscarred ## Session Summary As we travel to the Sanctum Empirica, it becomes apparent that Ka'ira, Snowflake, and Eraithe have been affected by the lightning. Eraithe only shows some lightning in his glass sword, but Ka'ira's and Snowflake's features have begun to change (Snowflake's more drastically), shifting constantly. Ka'ira's acid breath has acquired lightning damage. She and Snowflake gain a Spellscar, changing their bodies and abilities permanently. Oghma sends me a waking dream where he encourages me to uncover secrets and lies. I change the people who are allowed to open and close the doors to the Vault of the Nine and the teleportation spire. We spend some time mapping out what we know of the region of the Sword Coast, and then we talk to Reona about her experience in The Chasm. We also befriend one of the civilians, who was unable to leave with Keren and the rest of the civilians because he was unconscious (after being a little too eager to see Neverwinter and hitting his head on the window). He is Kamael, and becomes our new caretaker. We go to the Driftwood Tavern, where Madame Rosene introduces us to Cyla, the lone survivor of an attack she says befell The Nashers, preventing the envoy from coming to Madame Rosene. She agrees to take us back to the scene of the crime, but asks for asylum in return. Madame Rosene also tells us that Neverember is holding a big, public rally in three days, but she doesn't know what it is about. Additionally, Indigo has resurfaced, and we can go talk to her whenever we want to. Keren returns to Castle Never and tells Ka'ira that one of the civilians, a pale woman with maze-like tattoos, seemed not to be from Neverwinter and disappeared before he could figure out what her story was. ^summary ## Recap of last session ![[82_20210703 Day 15 Goodbye Gloomtoes^summary]] --- ## Log There's still a hole, but the lightning is no longer being focused by the crystal. Ka'ira, Snowflake, and Eraithe were touched by the lightning. Eraithe's sword seems to have caught some of the lightning, but Eraithe is ok. Ka'ira is changing slightly-- she's getting a third eye, or scales that are a different color. Snowflake is changing more rapidly, and with bigger changes (like growing a second head) but neither Ka'ira nor Snowflake are hurt. Earth elementals have the ability to walk through stone. Reona is with us! I treat Maestro's Festering Wound. 2 successes! Short rest. What could have put the crystal in the earth elemental? I'm in a library and one of the scrolls unfurls and floats away from the shelves. It has the symbol of Oghma. Oghma has never shown him to me. But writing appears on the scroll: _Uncover the secrets. Uncover the lies._ Library is very dark and I can only see the immediate area around the scroll. Ka'ira's breath weapon now has both acid and lightning, and when you breathe, it only affects enemies as the lightning can leap from one to another. In addition, allies are healed by her Charisma modifier. Resist lightning _or_ resist acid is not enough to resist her breath-- it has to be both. Snowflake is starting to become smaller and sleeker. Maestro attempts to change the people that can open locks. He fails, but I succeed. Keren Maestro Ka'ira Eraithe Xio Nine: spire and Nine Keren: teleportation spire Source of the Castle's magic is close to Castle Never, very close by. Could be in the castle or right next to it. A majority of its power is being used in a protective (abjuration) capacity, somewhere northeast of me. Only a small amount of its power is being used to protect the Castle itself (locks and mental tampering). I start to learn more about how the magic works. The obelisk, through the power source, is attached to other obelisks around the world but none of the sources are active now. I can just start to create a map of where things are. We remember that in the [[Hall of Justice]], there was a humanoid shape that seemed taller than a normal person that was fighting with the good guys against the bad guys. Maestro recognizes it as something they saw in the Feywild. Eraithe says Ancient Eladrin used to mark a Fey Crossing with a circle of stones or mushrooms, maybe an arch. But they are rarely stable. The ones that are reliable are marked. They usually require a certain condition to be met before they can be used, like a certain season or time of day. Things that are Northeast: - [[Neverwinter Wood]] - [[Mount Hotenow]] - a tower beyond Neverwinter Wood that only appears in moonlight on certain nights, beyond that, a desert. - There are barbarians that partially roam the forest. They're [[Uthgardt]] barbarians. It is said that the burial mound of their greatest warrior is somewhere there and that barbarians defend it fiercely, not wanting people to trespass. [[Luskan]] is north/northwest from Neverwinter Wood, along the coast. Beyond Luskan is the "[[Spine of the World]]", a frozen land. [[High Road]] connects Neverwinter to [[Phandalin]] (5 days away) and Leilon, then Waterdeep. [[Leilon]] is the city that the white dragon destroyed. [[Fey Crossing]] is about one day's travel from [[Helm's Hold]]. Thundertree is to the east of Helm's Hold. ![[Map of the Sword Coast.jpg]] Illusk might have been what Luskan came from? Kuya isn't sure. [[Reona]] remembers some things through a haze of black clouds and blue lightning. She was drawn to The Chasm for some reason. She's quite good at climbing. She was a little reckless in her haze (mind-controlled state) and didn't really care about the orcs. She just climbed down because all she knew was that she needed to be near the crystal. She walked there and the Foulspawns let her pass. The smaller ones put her inside a sac and she let them. She watched as she was pushed inside a sac and then she must have fallen asleep. She couldn't think for herself. All she could do was write a note before she had to leave. The civilian's name is [[Kamael]]. He is an old human man, very ornery. He is a gravedigger. [[Zarrut]] works for Kamael. Kamael says Zarrut is over-enthusiastic and digs graves before the body comes. He also goes poking around in different places. Kamael says people are buried with the weirdest things. Zarrut is always in the graveyard, even before and after his shift. Kamael is always complaining about "kids nowadays". He says that "the folks from Mintarn" don't like to be around dead bodies, so they've been just leaving him alone. It's a pleasant job for him since he likes being left alone to his own devices. He is half blind (one eye does not work). His name is pronounced "kama-yel". We ask him to be our caretaker! He seems to agree with that as long as we give him a supply of water. I ask [[Zeethrix]] not to attack Kamael and Kamael not to attack the ettercaps. Ka'ira gets a [[Spellscarred|spellscar]] on her head, like a smile. Snowflake also gets a Spellscar. That part of her body will have crackling lightning, and it is especially obvious at night. I know that people who have Spellscars are sent to [[Helm's Hold]]. Most people believe the Spellscar is contagious and will want to stay away from the Spellscarred. It allows Ka'ira to get feats that require Spellscars. It doesn't do anything by itself, but it does brand her. It helps with Intimidation but hinders Diplomacy. Here in Neverwinter, Spellscars are shunned. 3 pm I tell Reona about [[Cyriac]] and [[Zaile]]. We go to [[Driftwood Tavern]]. [[Madame Rosene]] is talking to a hooded person. Behind MR are two people who look like they are guards. MR gestures for us to approach. When she sees Reona, she hugs Reona. "I'm glad you're okay," she says. "I thought we'd lost you somehow. What happened?" Reona says it's a story that can wait. "Suffice to say that I'm fine and these people have rescued me." MR introduces us to [[Cyla]], the hooded figure she was talking to. She is one of the survivors of the Nashers. She was in the Kraken tunnels when they were attacked. Cyla says "My job was just to keep the weapons ready. I was just doing my job when I heard a commotion outside. I was in the weapons room. I just peeked out. There was a battle in our headquarters! Arlon was there, fighting three of them, and from the sounds that I heard, there were more of them elsewhere. There were so many of them." She describes "them" as people who were their allies. They provided the Nashers weapons and armor from Luskan. They were dressed in green cloaks or capes. They seemed to be able to move around the sewers without being noticed. More of them seemed to grow out of the floor and didn't seem human: they had fur and whiskers and black eyes with no whites. They started attacking and multiplying. Arlon (and some others) fell. Cyla ran. They were a group from Luskan that the Nashers had been working with for some time, but the Nashers had only had one or two of them in the headquarters at a time, to help the Nashers get weapons. They are sneaky types that walk quietly. [[Dead Rats]] Cyla doesn't remember where they have been getting weapons-- they aren't of Neverwintan make and are definitely of foreign origin. I tried to get her Truename but I fail. According to my insight check, though, she seems fearful of Neverember. Maybe joining the Nashers was her way of getting the protection that she needs without needing to fight. She agrees to take us to the Kraken Tunnels to see the scene of the battle. She said the paths to their headquarters were usually patrolled to kill vermin and undead or to dissuade other people from going to their headquarters. But now, she can't assure us that there won't be anything blocking the way. Cyla has been with The Nashers for about a month. She says they started getting new weapons about three weeks ago or so. She can tell the difference because the new weapons are of inferior quality. Cyla says [[Arlon Bladeshaper]]'s weapon is a sword and it's well-kept. She says the Nashers treated her well too. Cyla says she hasn't seen the black bolt before-- it's very well-made. Madame Rosene doesn't know about it either. I give MR the bolt because she said she would ask around. Madame Rosene tells us where Cyla will be kept. Madame Rosene has more news for us: - [[Indigo]] has returned. She's ok, but she's blabbering. Maybe we'd like to see her. She says that there was an attack on them (Indigo and Cyriac) and the moment she heard an explosion, she ran, and that's how she survived. - There are some loud, thrashing sounds from the sewers that started about the same time as the attack Cyla talked about. It could be connected to the people that attacked The Nashers, or it could be something else. In three days, [[Neverember]] has announced that he will be holding a rally in the [[Protector's Enclave]]. It's probably a bid to keep his tenuous hold on the leadership of the city. It will probably be bad for us and we should probably be there to see what will happen. She's not sure what it involves, but it's a public event, which he's only done before for large announcements (like establishing trade with other cities or building the wall). - Also, the Protector's Enclave is looking more and more like a battlefield due to the [[Ice Phase Spider]], even with [[Thraid]]'s help. They can't seem to kill the spider and stop it from killing people every day. The spider comes out once a day to sap the warmth from random villagers. They suspect it's attracted to gnomes, elves, and eladrin because most of the victims were of those races. They were all left lifeless and cold, as if all the heat was drained out of them. We tell Madame Rosene about [[Gloomtoes]] being gone as well. She says that Gloomtoes had told her in their first conversation that he was open about him being with the Sons only to stay in Neverwinter long enough to explore the mystery he's been wanting to solve. MR is glad that he's managed to get what he wanted, and will miss him greatly. She gives us directions to where Indigo is. Switch to Ka'ira, giving Kamael a tour of the castle. He's a little harder to impress than Ka'ira expected. He's used to seeing the ghosts now. Keren arrives. Keren was able to get the other civilians into the city and back home. He said that they seem like ordinary citizens and harmless enough. But one of them, an old lady who is covered in a scarf (maybe one that is worn as protection from the sun) seemed different. She has a weird accent. I think she speaks Common well enough, but she's not from around here. She was completely covered by clothes, but Keren caught a glimpse of tattoos on her very pale, almost gray, arms. She didn't look well, but she moved normally enough. She said her name was "[[Zin]]". He tried to talk to the lady, but he got the sense that she didn't have an address here in Neverwinter. He tried to get her to open up, but she was stalling. Then she just disappeared when he wasn't looking, in broad daylight. Her tattoos were maze-like or geometric. ? Were [[Declan]]'s tattoos maze-like or geometric?