Loose Ends
After the destruction of
Fala Sumaire,
Alric Kota used the oblex to discover the item she had taken from him was being stored in a chamber beneath the mansion.
They encountered
Marsi and an unconscious Angitia on the stair. Marsi told them she had returned only to retrieve their book, and wanted to take Angitia back home to
Kimber.
Master Sorrell agreed to send them back to
Ulna (the closest location he could get them) using the teleportation circle in the mansion. Meanwhile
Mal Aspen,
Agnes Silverbrand and Alric cleared and burned the bodies from the mansion and hedge maze.
The group reunited to enter the chamber beneath the mansion. They found a trunk of Sumaire's belongings, along with Alric's item: a large hourglass. Alric revealed this to be his phylactery, and that he is a
baelnorn. They were ambushed by
Sybella, who took advantage of the chamber's naturally thin boundary with the
Shadowfell to banish the group there.
In a shadowy version of the mansion they became trapped in memories of Agnes, Lizzie and Mal, with the memories being wiped from the originating person once the memory had played to completion. They eventually found their way into a room occupied by
Cailach Gorn, who offered the group the chance to leave her house in exchange for one more memory.
Alric offered one of his memories, and the group found themselves in his recollection of his last conversation with
Master Sorrell before he had fled
Ulna.
They were subsequently released into the shadowy grounds of the house, where they rested in the magical hut. During their rest
Lizzie spoke to a couple of ravens which had approached the hut. The ravens invited them to visit their 'mistress', and after a Daylight spell failed to reactivate the
Portal Stone, they agreed.
The ravens led them to the
Fortress of Memories, in which they were separated and each pulled through a variety of dream-memory hybrids. They eventually managed to reunite and find the throne room of the
Mistress of Ravens, who spoke to them in the guise of three forms (Agnes's grandmother,
Fala Sumaire, and
Celeste). She offered to send them to a portal back to the Material Plane if they promised to bring her one of four requested items in return: silt from the river that runs through
The Nine Hells, a vial of water from
The Place Between The Worlds, a horn from the head of
Orcus, or one of the silver threads belonging to the
Unnamed Ones.
Lizzie accepted her mark as a sealing of the deal, and they are led to a portal back to the
Nathair Wood. Using the Portal Stone they picked up the cultists they had left on the
Ethereal Plane and brought everyone back to
Cannis City, where all but Alric and Sorrell went their separate ways.
As Good As A Rest
The Folly spent the evening at
The Lean Inn, and the following morning at one of
Cannis City's best spas. Following her experiences in the
Shadowfell and their finding of the Moonstone at the mansion, Agnes repeatedly tried to contact
Ishtar but received no response, leading her to fear the worst.
They reported their findings in
Ochar to
King Aden II, who sought reassurances that their destruction of
Fala Sumaire should stop the strange events in
Cannis, and agreed to fund the cleansing of the mansion. He also expressed his continued concerns about
Duris.
They returned to the mansion with
Alric Kota, who wished to help them by providing protection for Agnes while she cast the month-long cleansing ritual in the underground chamber. Over the month
The Folly made repairs, read books, ingratiated themselves with the people of
Ochar, developed a tentative friendship with
Alric Kota and began to make the mansion, now christened The Follyday Inn, their home.
After rekindling their friendship,
Alric Kota took up
Master Sorrell's offer to stay at his home on
Aris.
The Folly decided their next quest should be to retrieve Mal and
Fyn Saremar's souls from
Triel.
Hell is Other People
The Folly and
Fyn Saremar travelled to Stygia in the
The Nine Hells using the Portal Stone, finding themselved just outside the walls of Tantlin. While
Lizzie used his familiar Sis to observe some hellish denizens make their way through the city gates,
Agnes Silverbrand attempted to scry on Triel (causing psychic damage) and
Janil Crossa (on the assumption her disappearance was indeed the result of being taken by Triel).
Agnes managed to observe Crossa's ship, and using a Find The Path spell the group began to journey towards it. They survived an encounter with several ice devils, but lost the spell as a result, leaving them to guess their continued direction of travel.
On the journey they encountered
Estrig, a devil travelling by howler-drawn sled, who offered to take them to the ship in exchange for Lizzie writing a song about them. When they arrived to find the ship some distance off shore, Mal made another deal with Estrig to be taken to the ship itself in exchange for a future favour.
On the ship they found Crossa, her crew,
Eskessir Edrafan,
Celeste and Tybalt, but quickly realised all but Edrafan had no memory of their lives before death. Edrafan tried to convince them to leave, but they instead pretended to be new souls joining the crew, accepting Crossa's invitation to a celebratory meal. Later Mal showed Edrafan the amulet she had taken from his body, and he told her Triel would be able to track her with it. She used it to taunt Triel, and he soon emerged from the waters in the form of a kraken and immediately tried to kill her to claim her soul.
A desperate battle ensued, during which both Mal and Lizzie lost their memories after touching the waters of the Styx. In an unexpected betrayal,
Fyn Saremar made a deal with Triel and turned on Mal, killing her. Agnes attempted a revivify spell, but it failed. Though Mal's soul was separated from her body, she was still able to land the final blow on Triel.
The group returned to shore, reluctantly bringing Saremar with them, mostly out of a sense of duty to
Hosk Valer, who had asked that they bring his friend back safely. Agnes restored Mal and Lizzie's memories, then managed to conduct a successful resurrection ritual, bringing Mal back to life.
Estrig took them to Tantlin, where they were able to discover that ownership of Mal and Saremar's souls had now passed to
Levistus. They decided to seek an audience with him, and Estrig duly took them to the palace at the centre of the city to do so.
Both Mal and Saremar entered the inner sanctum and communicated with Levistus, Mal strking another deal, with Levistus agreeing to relinquish ownership of her soul if she was able to find a way to free him from his imprisonment.
The group bid farewell to Estrig and returned to the Material Plane and the Lean Inn, where they described what had happened, including Saremar's betrayal. The next morning they found that Saremar was suddenly wracked with guilt over his actions, having recovered his moral sense overnight, which they realised had been twisted as a side effect of being in the
The Nine Hells.
However, the impact of his actions was still too raw, and after shopping for essential items in the city and meeting
Zella Snowpeak,
The Folly decided not to return to the Lean Inn and instead use the Moonstone to go home to the Follyday Inn.
That night, each of them had strange dreams: both Agnes and Lizzie's featuring the same landscape that they deduced to be close to the
Frostreach Mountains. In her dream, Mal was visited by
Levistus, who offered her magical abilities, which she accepted.
In deciding their next move, Agnes once again contacted
King Aden II, who asked them to travel to
Duris and investigate the situation there, including the fate of a number of Cannis guards he had sent there and who had not returned.
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