We head to Taben Staves, the St Cuthbert Inquisitor, and Simon gives a report on the events of Resurrection Day. He overshares, as usual, and tells Staves that not only did we find the ring, but also were given the Eye of Vecna. Codex didn’t love that. Codex also got very upset at the pen, which kept recording his opinion as grey rather than black, indicating it is not a factual statement. Simon asks about Sabre Khaludz and the warrant for his arrest, we are made aware that anyone can collect on the warrant, except for the Royal Family, at least officially. Bale would have to cover up a little when we go after him.
Codex does attempt to ask Taben Staves about the vision he had 15 years ago, specifically about the 5 natural and one unnatural souls. Taben’s response is “I think you know”. This enrages Codex and he swears at the Inquisitor and leaves.
Our best guess is that the 5 natural souls are us, and the unnatural soul is … maybe Kraken? Maybe not. We don’t know.
We return the Royal Compound, and speak to Pyyrhos about our immediate concern, which is meeting the Thane Cormac Brasshand and reinitializing diplomatic ties. Pyyrhos warns us that the Thane is very insightful, and we should try to be honest in our dealings with him.
He also mentions that it would be useful to ask how the human kingdom can participate in the upcoming 2000th anniversary of the Brasshand reign in Lanternglow next year. Emphasis on participate.
We make arrangements to have an audience with the Thane in two days. In the interim, we need to deal with the Eye of Vecna.
Codex figures out that he can only get about 250 yards away before the Eye just appears in his pocket. So that is a problem. Codex decides to try two things – first he wants to speak to Faranth, the Gold Dragon. If that doesn’t work, we then look at selling it to a buyer in Sigil, and ask that it not return to our world.
We head to the Elven Enclave, and speak to an Elven Loremaster named Ivy. She confirms that Faranth is in Gleamshore, but Gleamshore is a two week journey by land. However, there was a teleportation circle. The sequence was broken, but the description might be enough for a conventional teleport to work.
We thank her and then try the teleport. The first teleport is a failure, we are not in the correct place, a massive forest of old growth, and beautiful. But not where we want to be. Some wary wood elves greet us, we apologize and try it again.
This time, we are bang on. We arrive in Gleamshore. And we hear, whistling, Faranth, in his human form. He looks like a retired pirate, with gold gleaming eyes. He is smoking and overlooking a garden plot. The settlement of Gleamshore is abandoned, but in good repair. He lives in a one room hut.
He invites us in, and we see that six chairs are already set up for us. He serves us milk and cookies. We speak to him about the artifacts in Diseragur.
The truth of what happened was this. The Horn was blown, Tiamat came through, but one of the heads was dead, the red. This means that Bahamut sent Faranth back, because the Golds are in opposition to the Reds, and so long as Faranth survives, the world will not fall to the chromatics.
The battle was done, and 4 of Tiamat’s heads were defeated and returned to Avernus. The red head, because it appeared dead, stayed on the world. And she is trapped, unable to engage in machinations, the red head in the world, the rest in Avernus.
And the world and Avernus are linked. This is causing the world to become a cold wasteland, but interestingly it is causing Avernus to grow and live, which the Lords of Hell really hate.
Faranth estimates that our world will become a cold place of death in 1000 years, so 800 years are left.
We have two ways to deal with this – we can kill Anton, which completes the ritual of the blown horn. We would need to speak to Tiamat in Avernus to get her to agree to withdraw. We can also collect the Heart, Key, and Sword and use it to resurrect the red head, and then defeat it. This leaves Anton alive, but will return Tiamat to Avenus whole.
After consideration, Codex decides not to offer the Eye to Faranth. He would gain attention from a lot of other evil factions, and we need Faranth to live, as he keeps Anton from being completely unleashed.
Faranth tells us that we can return, and provides a piece of the broken teleportation circle to Maud. Once we decide what we want to do, we can come back
We return to Kingston, ready to sell the Eye of Vecna.