Breac's guild report - 0.7.13 agf

The Lion of Tokmor

Based on intelligence from Councillor Teelak of Tokmor, Breac Sunfist charged a team of adventurers to bring him to observe a sacred ritual, the Ritual of Transference, due to occur with the death of a council member and the promotion of his grandson. As stealth is not normally Breac’s strong point, he was polymorphed into a ferret.

Avoiding combat with a heavily blighted masterdom, the Little Warriors entered the wreckage of the old nightclub, the Black Hole, and planned their heist with Teelak. Events would begin with a grand ball, which the adventurers could infiltrate as guests and as members of Skywatch. Whisper was already ahead of them, providing musical entertainment. Testra Gleamwood, leader of the council, was spotted speaking with an individual out on a balcony. An hour into the ceremony, Dyson Gleamwood retired, apparently scheduled to die at midnight, while his grandson Travil was taken belowground by Teelak to perform the ritual.

Following Teelak through a teleportation circle, the party found an underground level full of servants, lower ranking council members, and their belongings, scattered with sarcophagi. The portal further down to the ritual chambers was heavily guarded. As Lothmar tried in vain to entice some of the guards to move away from their posts, the tower began to shake, and the Skywatch, believing the attack to be an attempt to interfere with the ritual, responded by recruiting Toulson and Novak to assist in guarding the portal. With their assistance, two of the party were able to enter the portal and descend to the ritual chambers unnoticed.

In the ritual chambers, Seeda (along with Breac in ferret form) found an old spellbook and diary of Rhillaine, before finding a window to look through to the Ritual itself. There, they witnessed Teelak press a gem into Travil Gleamwood’s chest and cast a spell. Shortly after, she greeted him as Dyson Gleamwood. The grandfather had died at midnight as scheduled, and then possessed the body of his grandson. This is the dark truth behind the power of the Council - they raise children expressly for the purpose of possessing their bodies in due course and prolonging their own lifespans. It is this vile practice that has convinced Teelak to lead her rebellion in secret.

Upstairs, the party narrowly escaped attention from Councillor Testra Gleamwood and her companion, the strange agent of Auxum known as Du’Malth, who had come down to prevent any interference with the ritual. They regathered themselves and fled out through the ballroom entrance to the news that the disturbance that had aided them had been an entire blighted Skyship landing tower - woken into a semi-sentience by Whisper - walking into the city and proceeding to besiege the building the ritual was occurring in.

Escaping the panic from this strange battle, they convened with Teelak back in the Black Hole. There, they examined more closely the diary of Rhillaine, which revealed she had pioneered the Ritual of Transference hundreds of years ago when she had been faced with a terrible choice at the scene of the theatre fire in Dingaford. She had come across the bodies of William Bregan and his two siblings, Claire and Jessep (Jnr), but not being a divine spellcaster she had no way of resurrecting any of them except at the expense of the other two. She had therefore chosen to drain the fading lifeforce of Claire and Jessep to fuel her attempt to bring young William to life. Du’Malth himself had been her assistant, and had brought details of the ritual to the Tokmor Council.