🎭 Strong Start#

  • Enter the strange portal and deal with the beasts and strange magic inside.

đź—ş Scenes Overview#

🔑 Secrets & Clues#

  • 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
  • Skreek’s royal egg is being used as a Hollow Threshold anchor for a plane of air themed threshold.
  • The Spring Court is led by the High Druidess, Faela Mossheart
    • Theme of renewal and reinvention. change is part of life’s natural rhythm and that spring is the season where everything gets a chance to start anew.

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 when you jumped in like heroes or fools.”

…

“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.”

đź“ť Session Notes#

  • The party, along with Shad’s animated tree, enters the portal
  • They battle the owlbear, alpha wolf, and dire wolves while trying to figure out what the space is about. They notice the glowing fang on the alter in the center of the chamber and another portal on the opposite side wall. After a few rounds of combat, additional dire wolves emerge from the other portal. Sensing this might not ever stop, Shad used dispel magic on the glowing fang and it stops glowing. The party kill off the remaining beasts with the animated tree squashing a couple wolves into jelly. The next round, Skreek picks up the fang and the chamber begins collapsing, shrinking in 10ft increments every round. As the party debated what to do next, another owlbear and alpha wolf emerge from the other far portal. Slumpet was the first to jump through the portal back to the material plane. Skreek gets knocked unconscious by the new owlbear. The magic in the chamber became unstable and a surge of magic tried to polymorph the entire party into beasts. Everyone avoided the effect except for Shad, who got turned into a frog. The owlbear jumps through the portal to the material plane, coming face to face with Slumpet. Toby tried to drag Skreek through the portal home but struggled to complete the task on her own. Slumpet evades the owlbear, reenters the chamber, and helps Toby to drag Skreek through. Shad, still a frog, jumps through the portal and tries to hide behind Slumpet. The owlbear that had jumped through the portal to the material plane seemed very confused and jumped back through the portal just before it collapses leaving nothing by the smell of ozone and frost covered grass where the stone bordered portal once stood.
  • After a minute, Shad morphed back into him self and the party tried to catch their breath
  • As they did, a mysterious cloaked figure emerged from a the nearby forest. He said he was observing the portal, trying to assess his next move, when the party either foolishly or heroically jumped in. When Shad asked how he was, he said he was Vael. Fifth Binder. Chainbearer of the Silent Vault. He said was was investigating these portals that had started popping up. He said the Cult of the Eclipse was responsible. They were using artifacts with planar energy to create “Hollow Thresholds” at key points in the area in an attempt to further destabilize the elven barrier. “These Hollow Thresholds are not natural tears. They are surgical incisions — deliberate gashes cut into reality itself. Each one siphons power from the leylines, draws energy away from the temples, weakens the barrier’s foundation.”, Vael explained.
  • Based on his title and the objects of his investigation, Skreek rightly guessed Vael had something to do with the Chained Library. After Vael confirmed this, he offered to show him where the Library is in exchange for a couple of the dangerous artifacts the party carried: Serenity’s Orb and the fang they had just retrieved from the portal. The arrived at a compromise: the party would hand over the fang now, Vale would escort them to the entrance to the Library, and Slumpet would give him the Orb once they arrived.
  • With that the party did a little more healing before traveling to the great birch tree at the edge of Spring territory. Slumpet attuned his Leyline Gate Ring to the standing stone near the tree, and the party rested before finishing their journey to the Spring court.