Session 67

The party departs Eldham, arriving in the small town of Malacanan a little more than 10 days later. As they approach, they notice a strange tower on the outskirts of town that gives a very faint and soft glow from the top and seems to be covered with ice at the top. Dain decides to browse the town looking to see what goods and services are available, while Lavanda and Merrick seem to take an interest in investigating the strange frozen tower. First, they head to the Leafsong Inn and speak with the owner, a cheerful Luminari woman by the name of Lalleni, who doesn't seem to know much about the tower and says that it's been there longer than the oldest residents of the town, and says that it's a beacon that travelers use to locate the town. She says that anything worth looting was taken long ago.

Dain finds a trading post known as the Silvery Paws run by a crude Lynoxi man named Crescent Moon, who shows Dain some interesting natural resources the merchants have brought from the town of Thenaphor to the south. He takes a particular interest in the Stormsilver ore, a magical ore capable of storing an electrical charge, and decides to purchase some to experiment with later.

Summer and Icarus take a stroll over to Harmony's Hearth, a bakery run by a family of Vesperkin, and speak with the owner, a man named Tuck who shows them a variety of fruity pastries and breads they have available, including some made with Frostfire Berries, a unique berry found mostly around Thenaphor, which have a unique taste beginning with a burst of sweet heat, and followed by a sour taste. They decide to buy some pies and pastries to share with the group.

Merrick pays a visit to the tower and uses his divination abilities to scry various areas of the tower, taking note of the decrepit interior, and noting a hovering, softly glowing orb on the top of the tower, above a large lump of opaque ice. He spends some time casting fire spells at the tower, which have no effect, before giving up.

Lavanda pays a visit to the local school house where she speaks with the school teacher, and asks about the history of the frosted tower. The teacher doesn't seem to know much beyond that the tower has been there for approximately 2,000 years. She also notes that the ice on top of the tower has apparently only been there for the last 800 years or so. Lavanda flirts with the woman, hoping to gain her trust, and it is reciprocated. The two converse and the school teacher mentions being from Cothunor, another port town northwest of Mythwell, and laments the disgusting pig sailors who occupied the place, citing it as one of her reasons for moving to Malacanan. She mentions that the locals are kind, with the exception perhaps of a local Lynoxi at the trading post, who has made his fair share of disgusting comments towards her. Lavanda decides this will not stand and goes to the trading post with the teacher, where she confronts the Lynoxi about his behavior, which is ignored. Lavanda manages to get some information out of the exchange about some attacks that were mentioned of merchants on the road down near Thenaphor, who report that they were assailed by "emaciated people". Lavanda then fulfills a promise to the school teacher and boops Crescent Moon on the nose, startling him and causing him to fall out of his chair, before telling him to change his vile ways and escorting the school teacher to the Leafsong Inn to buy her some cider. After deciding that there isn't much to see here, the group decides to move on to Nolaviath.

Along the way to Nolaviath, the party encounters Evaryan Shaethe, the archaeologist who contracted them to investigate the Catacombs of Blackfrost, who says he's on his way to Caphanos to charter a ship to take him to Greentide, where he wants to speak with members of the Antiquarian's Guild on Reshyk regarding his findings in the catacombs. Dain expresses interest in learning more about what this may reveal about the Dwarves of Arak and accompanies Evaryan until they both arrive in Nolaviath about 18 days after their departure.

The party does some sightseeing in Nolaviath, a city covered in thick mists belying the origin of its namesake, and finds their way to the Greasy Seagull, a tavern with a dubious name given the copious number of seagulls atop the town's roofs. While there, Grim decides to try the strongest brew they have available, a full flagon of Frostfire Mead, and promptly passes out, not awakening until a full 16 hours later. Dain questions the barkeep, Estrid, about the rumors they heard of attacks on the road near Thenaphor and is told the same story, but with a bit more detail, revealing that a couple men passed through telling of how their friend was bitten on the neck by these "emaciated people" and they fled, leaving him behind. Disturbed by this, the party decides to drag Grim out of the tavern and find an inn, but on their way, they are put on alert by a smell of rotting flesh wafting through the docks. They go for their weapons, but the concerned looks of unconcerned passersby cause them to ask about it, and a passing woman tells them that it has been happening for at least a couple years now, and sailors seem to believe the smell is coming somewhere from the east. They initially believed it to be the ghost ship which occasionally sails through the gulf on the horizon, but the smell is brought with every misting of the town, and hunters coming from the nearby hinterlands have been going missing. The party continues to the inn, where they meet the owner, a strange Vesperkin who seems to always be holding back laughter while speaking to them, and refusing to explain himself. They find this a little strange and decide to spend the night on the outskirts of town instead, before choosing to continue on to Thenaphor to investigate the reports of attacks on the road.

The party arrives in Thenaphor approximately 19 days later, on Quenten 10. They took a look around the town and take stock of the available businesses and the town's layout. They decide to make their first stop the inn, a small hillside inn with a scenic view named the Misty Mountain Inn. They take a moment to ask the owner, an Elven man, about the roadside attacks, and he describes some merchants who passed through the town on Lysten 25. He describes how they left town and shortly thereafter, an injured man returned to the town claiming he had been attacked by "emaciated people" and had been bitten and sought medical attention from the apothecary. They had been by their campfire at night and were looking at the wisps gathered at the base of the nearby mountains, an event the locals have dubbed "The Voyage of the Wisps", where on every full moon of Umos, wisps appear on the mountain, and the locals gather their essence to sell. While they were distracted by the wisps, dark figures stumbled out of the darkness from the east and attacked the men, and two of them fled north while the bitten one fled back to town.

While visiting the local apothecary to see what herbs and medicinal plants were available, Lavanda learns that the nearby Axalrea Hinterlands have a strange region where all of the trees have had the life force sucked out of them, leaving a large swath of dead trees.