016 - A Knave by any other name

General Summary

After a night's rest, the group gathers in the morning for a meeting with Howell where a number of topics are discussed and the group is given the chance to learn new information and either confirm or discount their theories.

Howell’s Origin & Backstory

• Howell comes from a near-magicless planet called Kymri, although he trained in magic on a planet known as Shintorii, where the balance between fey and shadow tipped towards the fey, leading to a magical, fairytale world.
• He is a part of a group known as The Heartless Runaways. They travel the realms exploring, and mostly do so in isolation from each other. They tend to have a lot of ego, and earned the name because of their habit of leaving broken hearts in their wake.
• Howell came to this part of the multiverse at the behest of their founding member, Planewalker le Fay.
• The group did not learn the names of any other members of the Runaways.

“The Court”

• The Runaways are aware of a number of organizations that style themselves as a “court”, as it’s a common theme - quite often it’s religious zealots, but also sometimes secret cabals and cults. He will pass the information on and see if they can dig up any other information.

What is the Blue Star Fire?

• There are two planes of energy called quantum planes that exist between all known existence - the positive and negative energy planes.
• It is not possible to travel to the energy planes physically, but some have attempted to project their minds there, with varying success rates.
• The material planes typically have two mirrors - the Fey Realm (The Feywild) and the Shadow Realm (The Shadowfell)
• The Fey Realm is abundant with positive energy, and teems with life and chaos as it most closely touches the positive energy plane, the plane of life.
• The Shadow Realm is a place of rigid order, stagnation and darkness. People who visit the Shadow Realm report it appears almost drained of colour. This echo most closely touches the Negative Energy plane, the plane of death.
• Positive energy is more random, more chaotic, whereas **Negative energy** is more ordered.

What does this have to do with the Blue Star Fire?

• The flame appears to burn living matter and its positive energy, using the chaos to spread itself further and "infect" anything nearby. 
• Once all energy is devoured, all that is left behind is the negative energy, the ordered, crystalline substance you’ve seen.

Where does the Blue Star Fire come from?

• The comets themselves are the remnants of a dead world that passed through the astral veil. 
• When they hit the astral veil, the Stellazia (constellations / guardians of the veil) are fragmented and shards of them become corrupted, attaching to the meteors and crashing down somewhere in the system. 
• These corrupt creatures are known as Lucavi, an ancient word that means both “twilight” and “deceiver”, and while they are incredibly dangerous, they can also be used to grant great power.
• Some seek to exploit their power, but because you approached them calmly and with care to soothe them, they have granted you a minor boon. 
• The marks received are transferrable, however, and Howell urges caution - those who seek to misuse them may come looking for anyone with a mark.

After the meeting, the group decides to take Howell's offer to take them to Dunamis. Howell gives Morell a lesson in creating new spells, which is interrupted by an attack from a strange manta-like creature that attacks the ship. After fending it off, Howell activates a portal using the magicks within his home and sends the group onwards to the next stage of their journey...

Report Date

11 Jun 2023