A Moment of Clarity - 2/18 session recap

Xakoraki spent some time scaring the living daylights out of Hondro, who sat up that night, shivering and jumping at every little scratching sound from the mesa door. Ander relieved him of watch duty, but Xakoraki had scared him so much that poor Hondro was reluctant to close his eyes. After some coaxing, and a promise that Ander would wake him in case of a zombie outbreak, he finally fell asleep. He was only able to get a few hours of rest before jolting awake with a scream, however.

Boreas and Thoric escorted Nunpar and a band of militia back to the mesa the following morning. The militia leader was brought up to speed on the situation, and he seemed less scared than the two teens. When asked, he provided them with the location of the magister, and that her name was Pajul or something.

The party had a discussion about where to go next. Ander wanted to walk back to Shandrapur across the desert. Thoric wanted to slay goblins with extreme prejudice, and a discussion arose about how bloodthirsty he was for a follower of Linitheriva. Eventually it was suggested that perhaps the party could visit the magister directly, and then decide on a course of action. They visited town first, and Ander commissioned a copy of both a local and a regional map from the scribe's shop.

The next morning, the party made the five mile journey south across arid scrublands to the magister's tower. It was a simple sandstone structure built on top of a natural rock outcropping. As they neared the tower they felt a building electrical pressure against them. They stopped, and a voice asked for them to identify themselves. They were permitted to approach, and a young woman in a white, loose-fitting garments appeared from around the base of the rock. She introduced herself as Vrisana Pajul, the local magister. After a few introductions, Thoric explained that they were looking for Orvalion. He asked if she knew anything about him.

She said that she was not surprised that Caelbhan had hired them for this task without explaining anything about it, but that she would be willing to talk to them further. She invited them to climb the stairs at the back of the rock and enter there. She then vanished. At the top of the stairs they found a simple door in the side of the tower. They knocked, and she bade them enter. She had laid out some cups, and she conjured some water into a pitcher to serve them.

She was apparently satisfied that she could trust the party, and she told them that Caelebhan was seeking Orvalion for the same reason that she was; Orvalion was the last known protector of the first dragonstone. All of the other dragonstones that had been located during the rebellion had self-destructed upon capture, but the very first one had been created with no such failsafes. It was the prototype for all of the others. Orvalion, as part of the original Parthanak lineage, was its protector before the fall of the empire. He has since disappeared, and understandably so.

Vrisana explained that she, and many others, were extremely interested in the whereabouts of the dragonstone. For her part, she said that she probably wanted the same thing that Orvalion did, which was to destroy it so that it could never be used against dragons or dragonkin again. She suspected that Caelebhan wanted to keep it "safe", and out of the "wrong" hands, but that he himself wanted to study it. She had already researched a bit into how to destroy it, and she guessed that Orvalion was doing the same thing in the places that the party had tracked him. She made the party an offer : If they could convince Orvalion to come share his research with her, she would pay them double what Caelebhan had offered. She also sweetened the deal by saying that she could also offer them a chance to study a teleportation ritual so that they would no longer have to rely completely on the whims of others for such travel.

Thoric asked her if she had come into contact with Thorium like Caelebhan, and she said that she had not. She also said that there was no known cure for his condition, at least not one for which he was willing to pay the price.

He also asked Vrisana about the goblin infestation that had been plaguing the town. She was vexed with this problem, since the townspeople had come to her a couple of times for her help with it. She was not inclined to deal with it herself, but she was willing to pay the party to take care of it, should they be so inclined. The reward was limited to free teleportation and access to learn the teleportation ritual themselves, but no fixed sum was discussed.

The party then set off for town for resupply and to pick up Ander's maps.