24th Dravago, 998 YK
- Further combat, dragons are hard
- Dax' Athla asks Dah'mir why he is doing this. Dah'mir responds "Would you give away your secrets, little lizard?"
- Kalshana flies over to Medala and tries to convince her to stop. She is successful, Medala drops everything and just starts to meditate.
- Kalshana also meditates.
- Dandra also meditates.
- Warden takes an acid breath from Dah'mir and is badly injured.
- Geth climbs onto Dah'mir, and the dragon takes flight.
- 160 feet in the air, Geth strikes at the dragonshard embedded in Dah'mir's chest with Aram. The shard explodes, and the pair fall.
- A cloud of black herons rise up to meet them, and only Geth emerges from the bottom of it.
- Singe catches Geth with feather fall.
- Terfel Glas kills a heron with a javelin.
- The party regroup, and loot. Ashi is uncomfortable but doesn't stop anyone.
- There is some discussion about next steps. Ashi tells a story about Dah'mir's arrival at the Bonetree.
- Batul and Terfel go to collapse the entrance to the Bonetree Mound. Batul uses plant growth to disrupt the structural integrity of the mound. It collapses.
- They leave and head back to Fat Tusk.
- There is a discussion at camp about the situation. Dah'mir is going to come after them.
- Dah'mir told Singe that Medala was the first of a new line of servants for the Dragon Below when he was travelling to the mound as a prisoner.
- Dandra elaborates further that they were an experiment. Medala was the success, Virikhad the failure and Dandra was something unexpected.
- Medala is mostly non-responsive, she only does anything if prompted and otherwise doesn't move or speak.
- Discussion of the story Ashi told leads to the conclusion that the "Hall of the Revered" is somewhere within Western Droaam. More research is needed to work out where.
- Natrac suggests that House Tharashk has bounty hunters that frequent Droaam, one of them might know where to go.
- Failing that, he also has a friend with an interest in history. It's an old story!
- They sleep, Medala is weird. She sleeps though.
- They arrive back at Fat Tusk in the evening.
- Batul takes Warden into the swamp to initiate him as a Gatekeeper, a process which will take 3 days.
- The others help out around Fat Tusk and otherwise have a well earned rest.
- There is some discussion of what to do next, but they don't want to make any decisions until everyone is there.
- Kalshana spends time trying to speak with Medala, who remains largely unresponsive.
- Dax' Athla has a conversation with Kal and Dandra about Medala. They can't take her into Droaam, and they can't just let her loose.
- Dandra provides some background. Dah'mirs machine placed both the Kalashtar and the Psicrystal into the psicrystal, a space that couldn't contain both. Medala killed Pok, her psicrystal, to regain her body. Virikhad refused to kill Brin, and both of them perished. Dandra was made from Tetkashtai's determination, and found an alternate route.
- Tetkashtai lashes out at Dandra and causes her pain periodically. Kalshana states that this is rude.
- Dax asks Dandra if she wants Tetkashtai to regain control of her body. Dandra doesn't answer the question.
- Terfel asks about joining the Gatekeepers. Orshok explains that non-druids can join as Hunters, and help the organisation by fighting extra-planar threats. Only powerful druids can maintain and restore the Dimensional Seals.
- Warden mentions the books the party recovered in the Citadel of the Closed Circle to Batul. When discussing where to put them, Batul mentions that Clan Torrn in House Tharashk are sympathetic to the Gatekeepers.
- They decide to put most of the books into the Siberys Observatory, for other Gatekeepers to use. They don't take the Codex Anathema, Batul doesn't want it in the observatory.
- The Codex Anathema is one of 12 copies. It is not written, as such, but is suffused with Dyrrn's magic and just imparts understanding when read. It's known to corrupt people.
- Warden is initiated as a Gatekeeper Initiate, and attunes to the Siberys Observatory.
Warden's Initiation
Warden and Batul journey into the swamps and arrive at a Siberys Observatory. The Gatekeeper initiation involves attuning to the Observatory, and swearing an oath in the name of Vvaraak never to inflict madness or disease on another creature. Gatekeepers answer to a higher calling.Warden swears the oath and spends the next three days observing the movements of the Ring of Siberys, and trying to decipher the omens he sees.
"If the servant of madness succeeds in acquiring a binding stone, a new line of wandering dreams shall arise."
This ritual unlocks something within Warden, and he becomes a Circle of Stars Druid.
The Hall of the Revered
The Hall of the Revered lies below the Spires of the Forge.Enter the door above the tangled valley.
Look neither left nor right.
The riches there are not for you.
Hold to the path that leads to the Hall
and find what waits in the shade of the Grieving Tree.