Visna strides forward, axe gleaming in the fulgurant light as she tries to trim back the loathsome flesh.
Pen’s lightning crackles between two of the smaller bhanyadas and the hulking behemoth, wreaking particular havoc on the latter! Briar dashes forward to stab a small bhanyada before falling back, while Visna moves to engage the southern two aberrations.
The smaller bhanyadas cluster around Visna and Briar, attaching with their gnashing teeth. None manage to land a hit.
The behemoth lumbers forward and reaches over the scavengers to attack Briar! It grabs the gnoll with its many huge hands.
Visna's grin breaks out into a deep battle-chuckle. "Yes yes, all wish to try their mettle or their muscle against Visna Fisher of Souls. Let us begin our journey together and let my Smile make the trail markers!"
Sanjana tries to get a good angle on the huge fleshy creature, looking for a weak spot to hit with their boomerang. If they find it, they point it out to Briar as well.
The overwhelming brilliance of the lightning is brief, suddenly as gone just as sudden as it had come. The blue might be gone, but searing red, tightly coiled into three beams, erupt down into the creatures, lighting up the sky again.
Sanjana scours a chunk of the behemoth’s flesh off with their boomerang. As Briar breaks free, Pen scorches the two small scavengers near her but misses the behemoth. Visna chops one of the bhanyadas fighting her to bits before slashing the next one.
The scavengers continue to attack. One grabs a hold of Briar’s leg, its gnashing teeth grinding painfully.
The behemoth steps forward and wallops Briar again, grabbing her!
Flames give way to an abundance of blue orbs slamming into the little flesh blob.
Visna desultorily chops the remaining spawn into its component parts. "Hold fast Briar! I will soon be at your side!"
Sanjana consults their tome before hurling their boomerang, striking the behemoth twice! Briar struggles in vain to escape the hulking aberration's grasp. As Pen blasts the smaller scavenger with magic missiles, Visna chops up the foe she is facing with three successive strikes!
The scavenger chomps down on Briar again with its gnashing teeth, following up with a critical bite. The behemoth continues to hold the gnoll as it pounds her with its free hands, landing a punch and a critical hit that leaves the gnoll unconscious and bleeding on the ground!
"Please don't eat my friend," Sanjana sighs as Briar goes limp in the creature's jaws. How many times did they need to have the discussion about not feeding the wildlife with your own body?
Reaching out, the kashrishi grabs hold of a bloodied hand, clasping it with intent.
A pearlescent sheen envelops Briar, and Sanjana projects a strong message into the behemoth's mind. "Poison. Bad. Not Food."
When the bright spark of gnolldom falls to teeth and fists, Pen's resolve firms to something solid, from the normal beaten egg mess to an overbaked biscuit. So, just better, not great and heroic, she still much rather be curled up with soup.
Despite that, she rises in the air, chanting while pulling some of her last reserves, hand above her head, just as the light erupts from her hands. The sickly green of disintegration. Most people might try to say something cool, play off of Sanjana's plea, but Pen is just concentrating on not spraying this lethal beam all over the countryside.
The green beam strikes the bhanyada behemoth, enveloping it in its glow. The monstrosity bellows before suddenly crumbling to a massive pile of dust! Visna is able to swiftly dispatch the last, very badly wounded, bhanyada.
"Thank you!" Araseesh calls as they emerge from hiding. "The way is clear now. Let us move swiftly before more monsters arrive!"
You stabilize Briar and carry her with you as you race back up the hillside, making it to the safety of the other Vudran soldiers. There, Briar receives more healing to rouse her to consciousness once more.
The soldiers are grateful for their commanding officer's return. Araseesh bows to you. "I am in your debt. I found a few treasures in the ruins. I want you to have them. Also, there is this.."
Reaching into their pouch, Araseesh produces a harrow card: The Trumpet. "This mysteriously appeared in my belongings several weeks ago, much in the same way that you mysteriously appeared here today. It has aided in my ability to react to danger, as well as allowing me to unleash a blast of sound once a day. I had already used it earlier today, or else it would have come in handy against the bhanyadas. Nevertheless, I get the sense that it belongs in your hands now."
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Briar is just as heavy as she looks as the group has to mostly drag her back up the steep slope. Once there and revived she comes too and groans with a wet wheeze, looking across the group in what energy she could to panic for her ward. Spotting Sanjana more or less uninjured she sighs and lets her head rest for a bit.
The tell-tale mark of blackened eyes and bruises from broken or fractured bones are already appearing on her body as welts as she speaks in pained breaths. "Going to need to sleep this one off." She chuckles for a split second before the action causes her to tense and cough again moving her arm to hold her ribs with a grimace.
With a few tries she manages to snap her fingers and the Mithril spear appears in her hand before she sets it down and just rests until the group is ready to return to their pocket plane.
Sanjana takes out the staff they had received back in Absalom, speaking the command word that would unlock its healing powers.
After bidding the soldiers farewell, you open a portal back to the Harrow Court. It riffles shut behind you as you step back into the Grand Hall of Harrowheart. The Arch of Shields is now empty, while the others still display the locations they did previously.
"One down..." Pen says slowly as she studies the empty doorway, letting her senses travel over every nook and cranny. She is just seeing if there is anything to explain how it works now that it is Off.
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Back in the Harrowheart with Sanjana's extra healing added to the numbing agents of her herbs Briar sighed. "I feel awful. I'm going to go sleep."
With that she limped through the halls to her own room and after gently taking off her gear she gently lowered herself into the hammock to rest her bruised body.
Pen's attention is pulled from the empty portal to watch the retreating Briar. "Is she okay?" she asks Sanjana and Visna, both of who know the gnoll vastly better than Pen does. "Not in the physical sense, but in other ways?"
Sanjana watches Briar retreat as well, blinking slowly. "Things didn't go well for her in our last encounter, and she feels that as a personal failure. She is wrong, of course. We should let her rest, and then perhaps we could explore more of this place. It might help to take her mind off things."
The elf nods, saying "She protected us." knowing the wizard and thaumaturge would have been overrun if it wasn't for the mass of gnoll at the choke point, letting None pass.
Of course Pen is no good at making people feel better though, so while her heart goes out to the other woman, she doesn't follow. "I'll take some tea then, until we are ready." she slips a book out of her satchel and heads off to her dinning room.
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Visna looks wistfully at the empty arch for a long time. "Ah well. To travel with such speed across the world is wonderful, to let so much of the world go unseen is a waste..."
She shrugs heavily. "I will speak to her. I understand a warrior's pride. A cup of tea afterwards would not go amiss."
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"Briar." Visna knocks as she announces herself, but does not wait for the gnoll to rise. "There is something you must do before rest takes you.
"Your vaunted deeds are known across th' Expanse.
Your victories o'er tow'ring beasts ring forth.
You're strong, yet no scarce few are mightier still.
True tests demand you meet them nonetheless.
Thus as your boons and banes must e'er be mixed,
What pearl will you pull forth from this defeat?"
The slight hitch in Visna's speech as she translates to Taldane lessens as she as she continues in less metered tones, though of course it never fully leaves. "To strive is to know defeat, Briar, and often to know indignity. But to give into that indignity piles yet another defeat upon your name. Cleave to your pride; know your worth as those you shield surely do."
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"Briar." Visna knocks as she announces herself, but does not wait for the gnoll to rise. "There is something you must do before rest takes you."Your vaunted deeds are known across th' Expanse.
Your victories o'er tow'ring beasts ring forth.
You're strong, yet no scarce few are mightier still.
True tests demand you meet them nonetheless.
Thus as your boons and banes must e'er be mixed,
What pearl will you pull forth from this defeat?"The slight hitch in Visna's speech as she translates to Taldane lessens as she as she continues in less metered tones, though of course it never fully leaves. "To strive is to know defeat, Briar, and often to know indignity. But to give into that indignity piles yet another defeat upon your name. Cleave to your pride; know your worth as those you shield surely do."
Due to her injuries and easy pace to not jostle anything open again, Visna is easily able to catch Briar in the middle of pulling the pin of the hide, allowing it to slip off her, leaving the plain if blood stained cloth shirt for all to see. She turns to look at the Northern woman as she speaks her spinners tongue.
"My deeds yes." She sighs and motions to the haphazard miss-mash that is her room. "Gaze upon what they've wrought weaver." Tenderly lifting one arm to the part jungle, part civilization, part temple structure that seems to be her room the gnoll takes a breath as deep as her bruised ribs allow, even the magic used to heal her doesn't take all the pain away.
"I know not where I belong without Sanjana's tasks. To go back to my home where those I love yet rebuild from the disaster without seeing them done would invite nothing but exile and shame to myself despite my deeds otherwise. To relax in the comforts of civilization, a dream, but there would be nothing to push me like the jungles of my youth and I would surely grow fat and tame. To do battle is what I know, but it is the foes we fight that cause me pause. Not just the monstrosities, but the why rages in my head. What purpose does this place serve and why are we it's masters is it simply fate that drives us onward or happenstance?" She coughs a bit and takes a few more breaths.
Briar visibly sags at the effort to make a longwinded proclamation, opting to tell Visna simply. "Were it not for the magic of Pen and your biting axe I would have handily failed my duty as Sanjana's warden. I faced a monstrosity of flesh and bone that-" She grimaced and let her head hang, "-that I could not beat with strength alone. I have faced down the titans of our world yes. But I would be remiss to let you believe they were at their peak. No, driven mad and weak by the rot which threatened my own people before Sanjana came to our aid. But titans of the land nonetheless."
Briar rips some plants from the wall knowing they'd fade in a day or so, but their curative properties should help for now. The various bioluminescent flora in the back of the room shirking into their bulbs, while the brightly colored flowers at the front extruded their fronds at the possibility of prey to catch, all due to the motion generated by the act across the floral wall.
"I must be better for the next battle Visna. Or I might not be here tomorrow, I cannot rely on the same tactics I did in Mwangi, that was shown today. Before we travel to our next destination we would do well to research what we might find there first and plan accordingly."
She begins chewing on the herbs as she moves towards her hammock, "I would ask you something before you leave Weaver of tales and Breaker of crowns. What do you think lies for all of us along this path? How would you act in my place in it?"
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Pen fiddles at the small nook in her dining room, which in itself is little more than a small nook. A cozy one, where you could easily imagine yourself nestled in during winter, over a mug of something warm and chocolate watching a family play in the snow, through the diamond-cut panes.
This nook within a nook held all things tea related, some beans for roasting, and various biscuits and bread. "'A cup of tea afterwards'" she repeated "Does that mean ten minutes, thirty, or just wait until I am summoned?" The mage struggled at times with imprecision. "And what tea would Briar like?" She didn't know. She didn't want to choose wrong.
Then inspiration hit her, so with hurried focus, she left her nook to find the gnoll's dining room.
'Afterward' Pen stands before Briar's door, breathing in the sweet scent of plants coming from within. She hears faint conversation coming past the opening, so she decides she is too early. Not wanting to interrupt, she sets the tray in front of the door. A tray piled with various slices of meat and two pots of tea so strong it could be used as a weapon, in her opinion.
Anxiety frets her as she shifts the contents this way and that. She is uncertain about the tea, did Briar really like it like this or did Pen just mess up the preparation? Tea was mentioned. Not additional substance, but what is tea without something to savor with it?
Standing, sighing with one last look at the offering, she then moves away to leave the two friends alone.
Across the hall from Briar, the door to Sanjana's room is open, as it always is - except for when they sleep. Inside, the kashrishi sits cross-legged on a pile of embroidered silk cushions, the Harrow deck face down before them. With slow, measured movements, they spread the cards on the floor in no discernible pattern, still facedown. The design on the back is beautiful and intricate, repeating over and over and over.
Sanjana sighs.
Here they were again, trapped again by destiny - and faithful Briar together with them. They were both so dutiful, so bound by honour and obligation and the chains of fate. As interesting as it had been to find these cards, to meet interesting people, to travel to new places, it was paltry compensation for the invisible yoke pulling them along a track not of their choosing.
Raising their head as Pentella hovers in front of Briar's door, Sanjana waves to get the wizard's attention, then motions to invite her in. "Would you like some tea?"
Pen startles a little at the wave. Looking a little sheepish, she comes into the room "I apologize for not greeting you properly while hovering across your door. I was... preoccupied with decisions." Fretting makes one oblivious to all other than the focus of the fret.
"Yes please." Getting past the apology, she answers the question about tea (who would say no to Tea?) and finds a suitable pillow for her tush.
Seeing the cards, "I never did like them as a medium. Cards, bones, dice. Augury in general, which is 'odd' given my discipline in the arcane is Divination. I chose 'Data Collection' as the avenue for prediction. Study, record, collate, and derive. Did you know on auspicious days, when great events seem to happen in our world, the average Barometric pressure is 0.125 percent higher? At least for the ones I've been able to observe..."
She is babbling.
So she stops. And when she does she realizes she was being negative towards Sanjana's medium, which is something she REALLY didn't want to do. With plain-as-day regret plastered all over her face, she quickly asks "What, um, do the cards tell you?"
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Sanjana sets the water to boiling over a small brazier while they select the leaves for steeping. "I do not like the cards much, either. But they do seem to like me, and I don't want to hurt their feelings."
The kashrishi smiles at Pen - clearly they do not mind her words. "They were not my choice. Your method sounds very interesting. You must have gathered a lot of data, do you write it down or do you record it some other way?"
At the last question, Sanjana cocks their head a little, then reaches out to poke at a card, pushing it across the floor for a few inches. "I don't want to listen to them right now. My little act of rebellion." They smile again. "It will not last long, it never does, but for now I want to be here and now, rather than try to peer into the future."
Pen smiles despite herself, the joy of the statement about the cards eclipsing her own inner thoughts for a moment.
As for recording, she answers "Journals, though I've had to develop ever increasing compression algorithms for space. Unfortunately, that makes it all useless to anyone else. I imagine when I pass and some poor soul has to clean out my rooms, they will take them all the writings of a mad woman." she gives a tight smile. "I did leave them, since carting a library around while exploring is not practical."
Pen was about to ask what the cards were trying to tell her, but their intent of ignoring them for now was clear enough. "Do you have a favorite. Medium I mean, if you can tell me.... in front of them" she cupped her mouth on the side at that whispered last part, in case the cards could see as well as hear.
"But surely Briar, this cannot be the first time that even the taste of defeat has crossed your lips? Were that true, than Desna, Cayden, and Fortune herself must surely shine upon your every step.
"And fear not, you will improve. You have fought with honor, and the gods are surely watching over our battles. I am certain they will reward you with strength. But you are right, might alone will not win every battle. Should you wish though to hone your mind along with your blade, I have a hnefatafl board in my chambers that will serve as an able whetstone.
"As to our path, I know it not, but it is clear that that path exists in truth, and not merely in metaphor. I have rarely seen a path before me that I did not wish to explore. If this path belongs to the skein of fate, then what fault is that of ours? The greatest heroes have long been able to prove themselves even greater when fate's eye was upon them." her hand naturally flickers into a handsign of Cayden Cailean. "Perhaps we will be given a similar chance."
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Briar shook her head, "No I've tasted the bitterness of defeat before, but never so fully as earlier. It was also not often that I had others at my back that needed my protection so thoroughly. Though after what transpired today I feel like that may be an overstatement of their need for my aid."
Reaching up to her jaws she carefully plucked the chewed herbs from her teeth and swallowed the remains. "I may take you up on your board, though I do not know the game. But not yet, I'll sleep now, let my body mend, think on todays battle." She sits carefully on the large hammock, and looks to Visna drearily for a few moments.
"We shall come to see if I'm able to shine in fate's light soon enough I suppose."
The two divination-ers talk about process and implements, and sip simply exquisite tea. Pen has a lovely time, finding talking to Sanjana to be one of the easiest social tasks she thinks she has ever had.
Even the significant others in her life, she always had an awed 'You want me?' disbelief holding on to her, and her children a long running anxiety she was messing them up.
But Sanjana was calm water on a lake coupled with tranquil cool breezes and soft warm sunlight.
Still there was a sliver of nagging in her head, which she finally mentally reviewed, and then remembered. Looking out into the hallway, she saw the platter of meat and tea still sitting. "Maybe I should knock?" she didn't know if the two warrior women were done with whatever two warrior women do to bolster each other after a battle, but sooner or later the tea would over steep.
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"Rest then. Your feats will challenge mine again ere long."
Visna leaves Briar to her slumber, but her expression is cloudy once the door behind her is closed.
Still, the repast before her quickly cheers her spirits. "Truly, this realm contains marvels great and small." She sips. "Ah, the tea is... Well, there are certainly still great marvels."
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Briar grunts a bit at Visna in response to her calls to get some rest, and quickly nestles in to do just that. Her lengthy sleep and recuperation however means that the tea from Pen outside her door will steep far too long and go cold, long before she gets to it. Though if left it would eventually be seen emptied.
Briar exits her room with renewed confidence and seeks out the others expecting them to have taken some time to explore the grounds a bit.
Should she find them she moves to ask, "Perhaps, this time we should go check with the other entities in our domain and see about researching what we may encounter next."
Harrowheart is situated on a hill at the very center of the Harrow Court, surrounded by a small village in turn surrounded by farmlands and pastures. It’s in this village that the simulacra who play the role of servants in Harrowheart “live,” and all the food and drink served in Harrowheart’s dining halls come from the surrounding farmlands. Beyond these fertile plains lie scorching deserts, trackless swamps, a deep lake, and a sprawling forest. Surrounding them all is a range of looming mountains.
You travel through the farmlands to where The Carnival has epitomized. Here, you find yourselves among a colorful, vibrant, and slightly off-putting fairground where festivals and celebrations are in constant swing. The simulacra who man the carnival are subtly sinister as they dance and cavort around you.
Critical Success The PC observes some of the carnival performers and gains subtle clues as to the nature of a foe they will soon face. The GM chooses a specific, named enemy that the PCs are likely to face at some point in the current adventure they’re playing. When the PC encounters that foe (as long as the foe isn’t disguised), they automatically recognize them. At this point, the GM informs the PC that they recognize the foe from their visit to the carnival, and the PC learns information about the foe as if they had achieved a critical success in an attempt to Recall Knowledge against that target. Until the party encounters and defeats that foe, they cannot visit this carnival again to search for clues.
Success As success, but instead of granting insight into the nature of a specific foe, the GM chooses a generic monster that the PCs may soon face, selecting from standard monsters that might be encountered in the current adventure the PCs are playing. The information gained is equal to what the PC would have gained from a success by Recalling Knowledge about that monster.
Failure Apart from a vaguely unsettling feeling of being watched themselves, the PC learns nothing from their visit to the carnival.
Critical Failure Rather than noticing anything helpful, the PC emerges from their trip to the carnival with paranoid feelings of being watched by unseen eyes, and becomes stupefied 3.
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Briar seems a little uneasy by the various simulacrum that make up the townsfolk, "Don't get me wro g they're probably fine but it's just... odd don't you think?"
On the hike across the fields to the carnival she seems far more chipper at being in the great outdoors once again, filling her lungs with that emphemeral stuff that makes up the air. Looking much more co fortable and at peace with the world. "This is more like it, not cramped in some fancy castle."
At the carnival however she quickly clams up and returns to her usual tough lady guard detail look and stares down nearly anyone that dances, prances, or guffaws their way.
Every carnival has at least one fortune teller, and it is in search of that person that Sanjana goes looking. The kashrishi takes their time, however, ambling slowly among the exhibits and the performances, perusing stalls selling trinkets and oddities.
"Exceedingly" Pen agrees, the hesitant worry in her voice growing once the friendly townfolk is replaced with the slightly sinister carnival folk. Thankfully her polite awkwardness is no different around the simulacrum than it would be around normal people, so she is in no danger of insulting then for that reason.
You all glean some subtle insights as to what sort of threats you may be facing soon, with Briar picking up the most clues. Of course, as is the nature of these clues, you won't understand the significance of them until you come upon the threats in question.
You return to Harrowheart and rest before approaching the Great Hall and the arches held within. After some deliberation, you decide to go through the Arch of Keys. You step through the portal and find yourselves standing in the mouth of a cliffside cave. From a daunting mountainside elevation of thousands of feet, an ocean studded with islands commands the view to the west, while to the east stretches out an expanse of thick jungle. The slope below hosts a cloud forest, its trees poking up through a layer of swirling mist, while a narrow path winds down and out of view into the fog. From here, Briar can tell that you are standing near the peak of Mount K’Walder, the second-highest peak in the Terwa Uplands.
The portal behind you vanishes, and you can now see that the cave entrance leads into an enormous space inside the mountain. This cathedral-like space stretches in a rough circle about 100 feet in diameter. Its smooth walls run in irregular arcs punctured by fissures and sporadic shafts that allow the daylight in so that the whole is well lit. Much of the wall space features huge, simple murals in bright colors, mostly of megafauna and towering trees against a backdrop of high mountains. A portrayal of an immense, heavily tattooed, brown-skinned man with thick muscles, rolls of fat, and a pleasant expression covers the wall opposite the cave entrance. The shaft of light illuminating the wall makes the man look even bigger, tricking the eye to make him look larger than even this massive cavern could contain. Those of you trained in religious studies recognize the man as Balumbdar the World-Shaker, the god of great size, megafauna, and strength.
A second shaft of light falls on a stone altar directly in front of this dynamic portrait. Slowly gyrating through loops in the air above the altar is a single Harrow card: The Juggler.
A lone man occupies the shrine, a hulking dwarf the at least as wide as he is tall. Dressed in sandals and a thin, sky-blue tunic tied with a rope, he seems impervious to the somewhat chilly temperature within the shrine. He speaks slowly in a quiet, warm voice, apparently not startled or unsettled at the brief appearance of a strange portal at the entrance to his shrine.
”Welcome, travelers, to my humble shrine. May I offer you refreshments?” The dwarf gestures to a nearby table that holds a huge jug of water and lumpy biscuits the size of coconuts.
Sanjana breathes deep of the thin air and the scents of the forest below before turning to look at the space behind them. Taking a few steps into the cave shrine, the kashrishi bows respectfully to the caretaker.
"Greetings, and apologies for intruding. I am afraid that we have not brought an offering. We did not know what we would find here." The kashrishi gestures to themselves. "I am Sanjana. May we know your name?"
The dwarf returns Sanjana's bow. "Well, they call me Blegkenu the Pious. I’m not saying I deserve that name, but that’s what they call me. It’s because I live up here in this shrine day and night to pay homage to my god, Balumbdar. I never forsake him.
"Balumbdar is the god of huge things! He protects the biggest animals, the highest peaks, the tallest trees, the largest boulders. He Who Is Massive understands the significance of weight and strength, the might that comes from size alone. The elephants and dinosaurs and other enormous beasts are sacred to him, as are great mountains and massive trees."
Visna beams, clearly feeling she has met a kindred spirit. "Well met Blegkenu the Pious, I am Visna Freydisdottir, Crownbreaker, Whalefriend, and Breathstealer. I have not made offering to Balumbdar, but I hope he is pleased by my deeds. Our travel does not seem to hold for you a surprise, have others likewise made of the air a door?"
The dwarf shakes his head. "Occasionally, some brave explorers make the climb to visit the shrine, but for the large part, I have been alone here for... oh, I don’t know exactly—three decades? Four? I imagine some of you weren’t even born when I first ascended this sacred peak.
“Anyway, you are the first group to arrive via portal. But this card just appeared here recently, like you!” Blegkenu gesture to The Juggler as it floats around. ”I found it there above the altar one morning several weeks ago. It’s very magical—and I suspect it has powers far beyond floating in circles! I’ve been seeking the prayer that will bring it to life. But look! See how immense the juggler on the card is? Look at the size of the things he tosses about so casually! What could this be but a sign from the World-Shaker? Marvelous! This juggler must be a herald of my god. I just need the right prayer to bring him forth."
"Perhaps a prayer spoken by the body might best be heard. An Arshean friend of mine has counseled me so before, though perhaps different feats of strength and coordination might better suit the task at hand. Do you have anything worthy to throw?"
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”I have tried throwing every heavy thing I can get my hands on, to no avail,” Blegkenu says. "No matter what I do, the card cannot be moved."
Indeed, while the Juggler card appears to float weightlessly, its weight is extraordinary, and attempts to pick it up or move it fail as though it were extraordinarily heavy. Any attempt to block its path above the stone simply causes the card to change its course—or simply to float in place.
"I've been thinking a lot about how to claim the card. Surely you recognize the card for what it is—a card from the Harrow. This card in particular, it’s from the suit of Keys. A key must be the key, wouldn’t you think? I think if I had a big key, especially a certain very specific key, I could complete my prayer. At that point, it wouldn’t matter whether I had the card or not."
The massive dwarf taps his chin. "I have seen the key in question not so long ago. The good news is that the key isn’t far, but the bad news is that the key is part of the hoard of a nefarious cloud dragon who lives in the valley to the south. This dragon is named Sedisserax. Exiled from the dwarven sky citadel of Cloudspire years ago after she destroyed several historical statues and relics, the dragon’s spent the last several decades moping and fuming in her remote lakeside lair.
"I've visited Sedisserax several times, and can tell you the route to her lair. She may be bitter and cantankerous, but she’s majestically massive and gloriously gigantic, and has given me many insights into the lifestyles of larger life over the years. I must warn you, though, that Sedisserax is vicious and spiteful, and usually eats those who travel too close to her valley—she’s traditionally suffered my visits because I never approach too closely, I am properly respectful, and, I suspect, because she’s guilty about her past and sees the chance to speak to a dwarf as, perhaps, an opportunity to find forgiveness.
"Each time I visited her, I noted a singular element of her treasure—an immense key almost almost as large as my arm. The dragon grew angry when, on my latest visit, I asked to examine the key. She attacked me in response, and while I thank Balumbdar’s mercy for my fortunate escape, I'm positive that I'm no longer welcome in her lair. If you could secure that enormous key and bring it back here for me to meditate upon, I am certain the mystery of the card will be revealed!"
You are able to recall that a large large number of cloud dragons make the Terwa Uplands their home. Each dragon takes a particular valley for their own, usually nesting in the tallest tree or near a mountain pool. Most of them are allies and friends of the Mbe’ke dwarves, so Sedisserax’s crimes must have been shocking and severe to merit banishment.
At heart, cloud dragons are wanderers, explorers, and travelers who enjoy nothing more than seeing new lands and meeting unusual creatures. Cloud dragons range in color from light blue to a pale, milky white and have thick, curling horns and rather short snouts. They keep lairs among the extreme altitudes of the highest mountain peaks but are away on their many journeys as often as they're at home. Cloud dragons spend long hours surveying the lands they fly over from great heights, but they are creatures of whim, making it hard to predict what will pique their curiosity and bring them winging down to converse or investigate something on the ground. Cloud dragons seldom perform acts of outright malice, but they are not often charitable either. A cloud dragon is as likely to simply pluck something they desire off the ground and fly away with it as they are to bargain fairly.
Cloud dragons are immune to electricity, as they can breathe forth electrified thunderclouds. They can also see perfectly through mist and fog.
As the cold wind wraps around them, Pen casts a spell to keep her body warm. Even with magical aide, she wishes she had packed an extra pair of socks. Listening to the others chat with Blegkenu, she can't help wondering if this particular card was specially designed with their Ulfen warrior in mind.
"Is there anything you might know that would help us talk to her? Other than do it at a distance and be as dwarfish as possible?" Pen did not like the idea of breaking into someone's home and stealing one of their possessions... which she knew made her a poor 'adventurer' since most adventures had one breaking into places protected by locks and traps, and then looting everything one could see.
"I would be shocked if Sedisserax stops to talk at all before she tries to eat you," Blegkenu says. "But her attitude has earned her trouble, and I have long suspected her end would come in the form of a group of dragonslayers. Try to secure the key without violence if you can, but it will likely take an extraordinary effort to do so."
When you are ready to set out, Blegkenu gives you directions to Sedisserax’s lair. “Follow the trail from my cave down the mountainside until you reach a lake. The trail heads off to the east from there, but to the west, along the lake shore, is a cave entrance—her home.”