The Breaking of the Associateship

The party returns to the Material Plane and immediately Aberchak is bombarded with a series of messages from Victor Elan via his sending stone. It seems Victor had attempted to reach Aberchak several times, but the messages were unable to reach into the Fey Realm. The last message seems to be from seven months ago, proving what Thuldar had warned about the passage of time being different between realms.

Lethe then contacted by Virren Lunamir, who uses his tower's amplification chamber to project his image. He says that Teldyrn had arrived a week ahead of Lethe and the others. Virren's image is joined by that of Thuldar, Trinn, and Syldara Bardonne, who inform the party of the city's status. Syldara says Teldyrn returned to its original location in the Material Plane, but what is left of Déon is worse than she feared. They were only able to send a few scouts out of the city as they were still dealing with the aftermath of the battle, and figuring out what to do with the imprisoned Ajokai soldiers. Trinn says that she will do her best to protect the city, but fears revealing her true form in the Material Plane unless absolutely necessary. In the meantime, she has been training Erevan in magic as well as guiding him in his role as the city's leader. Virren says that he will continue looking into ways to give himself a real body, and Thuldar says that he plans to look into the status of the Eloqui Order in this century. He believes the corruption he saw in his era must only have worsened over time.

After communicating with their allies in Teldyrn the party opt to head towards Valdenstok, the nearest city outside the Wilderwoods. They begin trekking through the dense forest guided by Aberchak. After some time, Aberchak notices that they are being followed. He stealths off the path and sneaks up behind a young boy of around 19 years old with an arrow in his leg and aiming a bow at them. Aberchak grabs the boy and brings him to the others, whereupon Precision recognizes him as her younger brother Staple. Staple tells his sister that Klenhelm is currently embroiled in a civil war. Their mother was in Ömstad trying to break their father out of prison while the oldest brother Jex had signed up to fight in Aufmar with their uncle. When the fighting started to get close to Windfarm the remaining family decided to head to Valdenstok, following their mother's instructions to seek out a contact of hers from her old thieving days. Staple was helping escort them when a skirmish on the road ahead forced them into the forest and they got lost. Last night goblins attacked and captured Aunt V and Marcus while Staple was out gathering wood. He tried to save them but wound up being shot and left.

The party decide to help Precision free her family, and make their way through the forest with Staple in tow towards the goblin cave. Along the way, they find the remnants of another skirmish. Eventually they arrive at the goblin cave, leaving Staple outside with four skeletons to protect him. They infiltrate the cave, finding it to be set up in an old abandoned iron mine. They kidnap a goblin cook named Slop, who tells them under duress that their chief Wreabdok led them into this mine and has been abducting civilians and forcing them to work in it.

The party head deeper in while disguised as goblins, where they can see a number of workers being forced to mine ore, including Aunt V. On the far side of the cavern, Chief Wreabdok is overseeing some of the younger workers that include Marcus working on the underside of some minecarts. Slop yells out and gives away their location, and a fight commences. Wreabdok grabs Marcus and another young prisoner and jumps into a minecart to escape, while the party jumps in another behind him. They eventually are able to kill Wreabdok, and Precision jumps into the now-unmanned cart containing her brother and brings it to a stop.

With Wreabdok and a majority of the goblin fighters killed, the rest scatter as the party frees the remaining prisoners. They head back to Staple and the Merchantel family is reunited. Together, they lead the prisoners out of the Wilderwoods to the safety of Valdenstok, where Precision announces that she will be leaving the party to take care of her family. Aberchak too decides to leave, electing not to return to Victor but instead fulfill his obligation to Nesymine but seeking out a way to reunite her with Mellaniphe. The party shares a drink at a tavern called the Rested Toad before parting ways.

Chapter Forty-Four

"The Breaking of the Associateship"

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Previous Chapter: A Power Awakened

Next Chapter: Hard to Find Good Help

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Ingame Date: 11-12^th of High Harvest, 1855
Real-Life Date: February 8, 2023
Protagonists:

• Lethe Argie
• Precision Merchantel
• Aberchak Haberdak

Featured NPCs:

• Virren Lunamir
• Thuldar Mardo
• Trinn
• Syldara Bardonne
• Staple Merchantel
• Slop

Locations:

• The Wilderwoods
• Wreabdok's Tribe
• Valdenstok