🎭 Strong Start#

  • Use the leyline gate network to travel to the Order of Seasons Tomb via a nearby standing stone, encounter Hollow Threshold along the way

đź—ş Scenes Overview#

🔑 Secrets & Clues#

  • Vidrir is much older than he seems and was the champion of the summer court that Skreek saw in his visions
  • Hollow Thresholds are being created by the Cult of the Eclipse
  • Vael, agent of the Chained Library, is investigating the weakening barrier and the hollow thresholds
  • Chained Library is located beneath the “Tael’anore”, the central mountain in Elven territory
    • “the roots beneath the seasons” / “vault at the world’s bloom.”
  • Skreek’s royal egg is being used as a Hollow Threshold anchor for a plane of air themed threshold

Vael’s Intro#

“I am a witness. An agent of balances long frayed. My name is Vael. Fifth Binder. Chainbearer of the Silent Vault. When minds shatter against what they should not know, we are the ones who pick up the pieces. Or burn them. Some truths are too dangerous to be carried, so we bury them in silence—where even their echoes find no ears.”

“I’ve studied the tears in the veil. This one”—he gestured to the now-absent portal—“was particularly volatile. I was… considering my options.”

Vael stepped closer. The sunlight didn’t seem to touch him.

“You carry something dangerous.” His gaze flicked to the pack where Slumpet kept Serenity’s orb, though the orb itself was hidden. “It has already drawn things to you. It will draw more. If you intend to keep walking this path, you will need knowledge. Forbidden knowledge. And perhaps… a key.”

Vidrir Revealed#

As Vidrir takes the reforged blade in his hands, the chamber quiets. Light blooms from the blade. It reaches out with gentle insistence, like morning sun breaking mist.

Slowly, the air around Vidrir shimmers. His beard lengthens. His frame grows leaner and older, not frail—but timeless. A single eye glimmers with radiant memory; the other is gone.

Vidrir exhales, steady. “I suppose it’s time,” he says with quiet reverence. “The blade remembers me. And now… you also see the truth.”

đź“ť Session Notes#

  • Skreek entered a dueling tournament at the Summer Court’s colleseum to test out Summer’s Edge. He was victoreous against a human knight named Adamar in black armor that had been doing well in the tournaments recently. The party all made decent wagers on Skreek winning with his new sword and they were all paid out handsomely based on his 4:1 odds because of his newcomer status.
  • The part journeyed northwest through the forest, towards a giant birch tree and the Spring Court. Before they reach the tree, they come upon a strange active portal made of stone standing 10 feet tall in a clearing. Shad animates a dead tree and sends it into the portal. It returns a minute later with a wolf biting its leg, which eventaully lets go of the tree and bounds back into the portal.
  • Toby sends in Francis to scout since the tree couldn’t report on what it had seen. Francis reports it is a 50 circular area with another portal on the opposite side. The area is closed off entirely by the largest trees he had ever seen. In the center, an ominous alter with large glowing fang pulsing on top of it. Scattered around the area are many beasts including a huge wolf, a pack of normal sized wolves, and an owlbear.