Session 17 - Restoring the Shards

General Summary

The Radiants find that the meat of the two creatures is toxic and instead choose to take the skulls with them as trophies and proof that the beasts had been slain.
Arriving back at the Collga settlement, the Radiants are met with cheers and thanks for slaying the fearsome beasts.
Dreyfus congratulates the party, and offers the boats they used as gifts for helping them. He then asks the Radiants what they plan to do next, given their goal.
The Radiants advise Dreyfus of the coming meeting of other tribes, with the aim of congregating at the site of the Gathering then depart for the peak to bring the shards back to Sov as instructed.
Travelling for 2.5 days brings the Radiants to the base of the Peak where they find that the sphere of Mire has either grown larger, come closer, or both. It is hard to tell at this distance. They also find that a massive encampment of Derashi have somehow arrived nearby and are gradually moving their camp closer to the foot of the path up the mountain. The encampment looks to be larger than the number of people one would expect from the Gathering
The Radiants scale the mountain and enter Sov's cave, which appears to be much as it was before.
On entering the cave, Sov emerges from the stone in his wall sconce appearing faded and slumped. He invites the Radiants to place the found shards within their own sconces in the wall.
Each Radiant chooses a shard to insert into the wall:
- Thog - Elwin , Shard from the forest
- Garth - Lirik , Unstable shard
- Toland - Canis, the first dormant shard
- Sang - Orbin, the second dormant shard
- Havard - Dromast, Shard from the cave in Zunthr territory
Each shard placed causes Sov to gain more substance and stand up taller, as if he is being revitalized
Sov will thank the Radiants for their aid and let them know that his power is increased greatly with the linking of his siblings. He will note the condition of Lirik, expressing concern. The Radiants explain to him that Lirik's shard was broken and that he was not quite sane.
Garth brings up that Abek has been of little use, to which Sov does not reply.
Sov says that there is one last thing to be done to fully restore his power and asks Abek to re-enter the pool which he had emerged from initially. Abek goes without complaint.
Sov then says that there is now one more task to complete to prevent disaster, and that is to destroy the source of the Mire. This is met with a great deal of confusion and resistance from the Radiants, with Sang especially having a particularly bad time of it. He threatens to withdraw his blessing and find another group of Radiants, which he is more than capable of doing now that he is linked with his siblings and has access to greater levels of power.
Sov proceeds to provide the following in brief explanation:
- The Radiants of the past made no mistakes, no errors in judgement. They were simply making the most of a bad situation.
- The Mire is an ancient enemy that Sov knows little about.
- Shards can be corrupted by the Mire if immersed in it too long without Radiance, much like Lirik almost was.
- The sphere of Mire is a reoccurrence from the past, a harbinger of what is to come.
- Humans can also be corrupted by the Mire, which is what caused the loss of the shards.
- Fatalism/nihilism can be signs of one who is easily influenced or already influenced by the Mire. Being killed within the influence of the Mire also allows it to infect the body like a parasite. This happened to one or more people in the past, which allowed them to circumvent protections in the cave and steal away with one of the Shards.
- Present day, either this shard has resurfaced, or a new shard has been found and corrupted.
- Ultimately, his knowledge of the events of that day are limited, and has not provided more of an explanation as to why.
Sov tasks the Radiants with finding and destroying this shard at the center of the Mire to put an end to the threat.
Sov also reveals that new power from linking with the lost gods has allowed him greater freedoms. As a result, Radiance now lasts 6 hours, one for each sibling linked with him, plus one from himself.
The Radiants depart for this one last task. Leaving the cave, Toland travels at great speed on a flying skin to warn the other tribes of the massive group of people waiting at the base of the Peak, where Olen and Trinn originally intended to gather. He finds only the Collga who let Toland know that the others have not arrived, but have received a messenger that says they are a few days out. Warning delivered, Toland returns to the party who have made it to near the bottom of the Peak.
The Radiants camp for the night, trying to keep hidden and away from the Derashi. They manage to do so, but hear them moving around in the night. Waking up the next morning, they find the Derashi camp has made it to the very foot of the mountain and seems to be staying put there, making a more permanent settlement. They are close enough to their camp that attempting to leave might lead to them being spotted.
The Radiants devise a distraction strategy where Thog and Toland will fly up on the magic skin and cause a distraction while the remaining, more stealthy people sneak out and around. The distraction works, with a few spears, sling bullets, and even a couple of arrows attempt to hit the flying distraction but miss completely.
After putting a good bit of distance between the party and the Derashi, the Radiants travel north towards the sphere of the Mire.
After about 3 days of travel, with the Mire growing closer and seemingly growing larger, the party camp a distance from the Mire. When they wake up, they find themselves inside the sphere. Now, all that is left to do is find the center and destroy the shard within.