S1 E24: Sleuthing, Shopping, and Fey Sisters

General Summary

In which the gang wraps up a few loose ends and gets focused on the future.

• The Castellan agreed to pay the gang the price Bailiff Varla had offered for rescuing the missing and 'eliminating the threat at the Caves of Chaos' -- plus some bonuses. He also paid off their bank note in full in return for their discretion, but he still asked them firmly but politely to leave the Keep, at least for a good long while. He agreed to post a guard to their townhouse. Later clairvoyance shows he and his wife in a coid non-argument in which he tells her they're going to get a divorce, which in the end would have been a lot simpler than a convoluted murder scheme.
• After using Augury to determine how dangerous it might be, the gang spoke in detail with Alba Filorene. She admitted that the Castellan had been blackmailing her and had promoted Kador instead of her as ways to influence her to perform a procedure on Elsinore that would make it impossible for her to become pregnant. He had apparently had a psychotic break due to the death of his first wife and their child, and in a deranged show of love didn't want to allow Elsinore to suffer the same fate. Alba did not disclose what specifically the Castellan knew about her that she didn't want the public to know, and they didn't press the issue.
• Having assurances from Augury that it would be safe to do so, they also restored Willow Candler to flesh, and from her learned a LOT of things about Quindarin, the convergence of the planes, bi-axial symmetry, portal crashes, and that the Tablets of the Profane Deep are literal puzzle keys that Quindarin built his locks around, as well as ancient signposts pointing to other hidden knowledge or treasures located in mysterious places all around the world. She makes a good case that whatever is needed to thwart the oncoming convergence or at least minimize the damage would be in the remains of his tower.
• Alba Filorene strongly advises them against just doing whatever Willow suggests; Willow, Alba says, is obsessed with Quindarin and would make up any story necessary to get their aid in finding out more about him. She also points out the unlikelihood of a multiplanar global catastrophe having its only solution right here in the border marches, where Willow just happens to be, and moreover in the ruins of Quindarin's tower where Willow just happens to have thus far been unable to enter. The gang agrees in principle, but Willow's story fits a lot of loose ends together, and adventure awaits regardless.
• Before leaving, the gang does a bit of shopping and housekeeping, and then sets off on the shorter route to the tower ruins, through the Ravenswood, on horseback. The longer route from the caves themselves would have put the horses at more risk, and taken hours, maybe a day, longer.
• As the day is getting on and they're nearing the site where they believe the tower to be, based on maps and information they had already received, strange female voices begin whispering, first telepathically, then audibly, to the gang, complaining that here they were stomping around through the wood again without so much as a single 'thank you' from any of them. These sisters want the party to give them something interesting as a show of reciprocity - not gold or boring mortal treasure but something precious and strange, like the color from their eyes, or their fear, or a story about the time they most disappointed their mothers - as recompense for the gifts they were given from the tree of trinkets. They exclude Zalock, who hadn't been there, but predict big things for him.
• The gang generally accepts that they should have, and would have, shown their gratitude, had they known, but the voices are only annoyed by this. One by one they confront the PCs, making remarks that spark deeper thinking about what their real fears are, and what relationships matter to them most. The gift of the secret of popcorn is readily collected, and Mae in particular is compelled to eat a handful of dirt each morning for the next week in order to get closer to 'her mother', which might be Nylea, or the nameless concept of nature itself. Xi Shi is encouraged to eat the egg she was given though it seems an even worse idea after speaking to the sisters.
• Eventually, having said their piece, the spirits leave as abruptly as they arrived, but when they go, the gang finds they have been left on the doorstep of odd ruins in a massively overgrown circle - the entrance to Quindarin's undercroft. But they're also well within the range of a Clairvoyant peek in on what Ophidra is up to, should Lorfel care to have a look before they head into the ruins and the unknown adventures within.

Rewards Granted

Level 7

Missions/Quests Completed

• Marriage Counseling
• The Trinket Tree, Part 2
• An Un-Serene Mistress

Character(s) interacted with

• Alba Filorene
• Willow Candler
• The Three Sisters of the Wood

Report Date

13 Sep 2022

Primary Location

The Ravenwood

Secondary Location

The Borderland Marches

Related Characters

• Alba Filorene
• Jules Merula