Session 106

After Seylas' abrupt message to Summer, and as Dain and Dorin left Fort Elden to return to the three Elves, Summer told Dain of Seylas' message. Having no other immediate plan of action, they set out to Eldham, and arrived about a day and a half later. Upon arriving, they head in to the Dead Goose Inn where they saw Icarus shuffling about cleaning up the place. After noticing them, he greeted them and when Dain asked where everyone was, he replied with "Elves sick." He then had a bit of a coughing fit, which confused and alarmed Dain, who worried he may have the plague as well. However, Icarus clarified by saying "Not sick. Too many Emberberries in soup. Cheese's fault." They asked Icarus for rooms, and he obliged, setting them up in their usual spot. Merrick decided to commune with Estrea, going to his room to avoid alarming the inn's patrons. After completing the ritual, Estrea's visage appeared and greeted him. Merrick said he had three questions for her, and asked her what the deal was with the plague, and asked how they could cure it. Estrea assured him that the cure was on the way, but did not elaborate further. He then asked her why the Deep One didn't seem to be interfering with him when attempting to commune with her, and she said that he didn't have the capacity to do so, but that Orick was not powerful enough to push back against the Deep One's intrusions. Finally, Merrick asked how Orick was doing, but Estrea didn't say much beyond that he "wasn't alive, but also wasn't dead." Merrick seemed a bit disappointed by her non-answers and said farewell, returning downstairs. In the dining area, Dain had an idea and cast a spell to place air bubbles around the Elven party members' heads, hoping that sealing their heads to prevent them from breathing on others, and preventing others from breathing on them, would protect against the spread of the plague. He then said he would go into town to check on things.

Heading to the gate for the city, Dain was stopped by a Human Enforcer who questioned his business in the city and his profession. The Enforcer seemed confused by his explanation of what exactly a "Runesmith" was, but once Dain told him of what he was looking to do, he seemed to have a flash of recognition and asked if he was one of the ones depicted in the statues at the center of the city. Dain confirmed, and the Enforcer seemed to regret stopping him and told him to go on through. Dain proceeded into the city, finding the streets empty save for a handful of non-Elves wandering about. He also noted that there didn't seem to be many, if any, Enforcers patrolling the streets. Arriving at Eldham's Excellent Elixirs, Dain knocked on the door and got a confused "Yes?" in response from Giselle inside. Heading into the shop, he greeted her, and they began to discuss the situation, as well as Dain's recent adventures in Reshyk. His stories seemed to confound Giselle who exclaimed that his adventures seemed like fantasy and that there was a reason she never pursued magic. Dain asked to purchase some healing potions, and she was all too happy to oblige, being that with so few people out and about, business was suffering. Dain purchased a large batch of potions and then Giselle commented that she had been thinking of expanding the shop, but would need to find someone to do the construction, and also that her daughter had taken an interest in magic, but that she didn't have the money to send her off to the Ars Aurum Academy. Dain seemed to imply that he may be willing to change that, and then took his leave. He then made his way to the Messy Cushion, where he saw that it was closed, and unfortunately Chandira's hole in the wall was not present. Noting the lack of Enforcers patrolling, Dain decided to pick the lock to the tavern and slowly opened the door, whereupon a glass went sailing past his head and smashed into the wall. Dain announced himself to a confused and perturbed Reginard, who questioned why in the world Dain was breaking into his tavern. Dain apologized, saying he thought Reginard might be in his cellar brewing, and wanted to talk to him. Reginard seemed annoyed and bothered by Dain's explanation for his skullduggery, but calmed and they caught up, talking about the Frostfire Mead that Reginard had been working toward brewing. He said it had been quite a success, but that its potency had resulted in him having to have quite a few people dragged out after they passed out, but that it had done much better than the homemade recipes he had come up with, and he was grateful. After catching up, Dain left to go to the Statehouse, hoping to get some kind of situational report from the Magistrate. However, when he arrived, he found a Human and a Vesperkin guarding the gate, who stopped him, saying the Statehouse was closed to visitors. Dain mentioned the rumor he heard from Reginard about the magistrate, Shael Erevyn, having contracted the plague, but the Enforcers seemed angry at his suggestion and denied it, saying she was simply catching up on paperwork. Dain then decided to taunt the Vesperkin woman, calling her a half-pint and suggesting that her guard was inadequate. The woman was a spit-fire and yelled at him, but when her Human counterpart didn't back her up, she got frustrated and went silent. Dain passive aggressively threatened her by pointing to his Steel Defender, and she seemed to shrink back in defeat. Dain turned to leave, and the Vesperkin woman threw a rock at the Steel Defender's head. Dain laughed and used Prestidigitation to apply a skunk smell to the woman, then returned to the Dead Goose Inn.

The party waited about for Valdor's arrival, when he finally poked his head into the inn later that day. He began to catch up with the party, who dropped the bombshell about Archmage Kyran's death. This seemed to shock Valdor, who was baffled at the implication that anyone on the planet could defeat him, stating that even he could not do such a thing. They began to fill in some blanks to explain some context and led into a recounting of their adventures, describing what happened with Aubron two years ago, explaining their destruction of the artifact known as the Chronicle of the Dead in the Wellspring, and its connection to the corruption of the Wellspring. Valdor seemed taken aback by their many brushes with the Seven Sisters, and even having prevented the revival of a Titan, but welcomed the stories, as he had spent 1,300 years re-reading the same 20 books in his cell. They then began to speak of the matter at hand, with Valdor speaking of the plague and explaining that the corruption they described was the influence of an entity he called "Maven", whom he said was a lesser deity, somewhere between the Seven Sisters and Orick. He also said that Maven was the son of Emir, the god of the void whom had empowered Aubron years ago and whom was the source of the Voidspawn. He explained that Maven was the god of corruption, poison, murder, and madness, and that he enjoyed toying with mortals, tempting them to commit evil acts, or transforming them into terrifying creatures, and that Calantha herself had become entangled with him, which is where she gained the ability to summon the Voidspawn that destroyed Seryndor. He also said that what she did to Ardnys, Valdor's wife, was also Maven's handiwork. However, he said that his work had paid off and he had managed to reverse the transformation and that Ardnys was now recovering. Valdor also explained how the plague worked, commenting that Dain's idea of putting air bubbles around the Elven party members' heads would do nothing because the plague was not airborne, but "Flowborne". Dain was confused, saying that it wasn't just infecting Elves who could use magic, but Valdor clarified that you need not direct Flow to be infected, and that the corruption was being "piggy-backed" on the Flow that the Wellspring was emitting, which was contaminating the animate Flow within the Elves, and that it targeted only Elves because Lys' Wellspring was the origin. He said that the Elves emerged from Lys' Wellspring at the beginning of the Age of Creation, which seemed to confuse the group who weren't aware of this story of the origin of the Elves -- and the other races, once Valdor clarified, stating that each emerged from the Wellspring of their patron goddess. He said that animate Flow was the life essence of a mortal, and that it was contained within their blood, and that the symptoms the Elves were experiencing were most likely because the corruption accompanied the eruption that awakened the Forgeborn, which were metallic in nature, explaining the metallization of the Elves' bodies.

After digesting all that Valdor told the party, the party took a break, and after noting Valdor sipping on a fruity drink, Dain asked if he had tried Frostfire Mead, to which Valdor denied, stating that he could not get drunk. Taking this as a challenge, Dain went back to the Messy Cushion and purchased a cask of Reginard's Frostfire Mead, bringing it back to Valdor, who said it would be wasted on him. But Dain uncorked the cask anyway and poured him a pint -- which Valdor downed rather quickly, to no effect. This baffled Dain, but Valdor explained by asking Dain how alcohol works. Once Dain thought about it, and Valdor pointed out that alcohol enters the bloodstream, Dain realized what he meant, referring to Valdor's mysterious magic, which seemed to have something to do with blood. Merrick seemed fascinated by this and asked Valdor for more information about his magic, but Valdor refused to say any more on the matter. With that, the party turned in for the night, deciding to depart for Mt. Ardreth the next morning so that Valdor could investigate to discover the nature of the corruption so they could hopefully find a cure.

The next morning, once the party got outside town, Valdor approached Merrick and asked him not to move, placing his hand on his chest. Merrick began to feel his insides churning, and before long, the rest of the party saw Valdor begin to withdraw blood from Merrick as it flowed out of his ears, eyes, mouth, and nose. It formed into a globe, which for some reason gave off a metallic sheen. Valdor flung it away, explaining that he had extracted the contamination from Merrick, saying that he was early on in the infection and it was weak enough that he could purge it himself. He then did the same for Summer and Moonshadow. They asked how he was able to do that, and he explained that because the contamination was Flowborne and animate Flow resided in the blood, his magic was able to target and extract the corrupted Flow. He cautioned that they shouldn't see this as a "cure" because they could still be infected, but that he had given each of them a resistance to the disease, so even if they were separated, they would be less likely to contract it in the future. They then continued on their journey. A few days later as they approached the Bast Wilds, they saw a distant figure near the treeline glinting in the sunlight. As they got closer, it appeared to be a vaguely humanoid shape giving off a metallic sheen. Wondering if it was a Forgeborn, they proceeded cautiously. However, once they got closer, they could see that the figure appeared to be more of a metallic statue, and was more organically shaped than a Forgeborn, looking more like an Elf. As they circled it observing the figure and the strange metallic growths protruding from its body, they noticed a patch of skin on its face, and an eye which snapped open, darting around looking at them in a panic, with tears welling up in its eyes.

They were startled, and Valdor put the pieces together, explaining that this must be the final stages of the Ferroplague, as he called it. He said that the skin would slowly turn metallic as the corruption inside them spread, and eventually their joints would lock up and then their whole body would become metal. He said that unfortunately, this man was far too long gone for him to be able to purge the plague, and that even if he could, he couldn't reverse the metamorphosis the man had undergone. He offered to put the man out of his misery, but the party debated this for some time, wondering if there was something else to be done. But they accepted that the man could not be saved and Dain decided to cast a spell to quickly end the man's pain. After the man breathed his last, the group buried him before quietly continuing along the road.

Arriving at Mt. Ardreth a couple weeks later, they began to ascend the path to the summit. Along the way, they encountered a group of three Elves that appeared to be with the Sorcerer's Cabal, who were using complicated looking equipment resembling a telescope aimed at the Wellspring above. As they passed by the group, Summer noticed one of the sorcerers, wearing a strange pair of goggles, glance over at them. As they did, the sorcerer did a double take and then began to stare at Valdor. The sorcerer went to their colleague and whispered something in their ear, causing their colleague to go pale. The colleague then went to their rucksack and pulled out what appeared to be a Sending Stone and began mouthing something that Summer could not make out -- however, she was able to read their lips enough to make out the words "send Bloodsealers." The sorcerers began to pack up their things and head off in another direction, upon which Valdor sped up and told the party that they would need to increase their pace and that they should descend the opposite side of the mountain, and that he could not be there when they returned. The party, especially Merrick, seemed to want to know more, but Valdor refused to say much more beyond what they already knew from exploring his tower in Seryndor. When they finally arrived at the Fringe, Valdor told them to be careful and not use any magic, as they could trigger a surge, which he explained was like a miniature Wellspring eruption, as them being directly inside the Fringe of the Wellspring and casting magic would be equivalent to a powerful sorcerer repeatedly using powerful magics to cause a Flow Cascade that would spread to the Wellspring and cause it to erupt, just much smaller scale. They proceeded into the bright blue and turbulent winds of the Fringe, where Valdor began to perform a ritual where he slashed his wrist, dripping blood to form some sort of magic circle, chanting in a language even Dain didn't understand, before lightning flashed and Valdor's eyes began to glow briefly as he was locked in a trance, before they faded. Valdor, exhausted, stumbled to his feet and hobbled over to the group, and explained that he believed he knew what they needed to do, and suggested that they head for the opposite side of the mountain and make their way to Baltacanath.