Mrs. Sheila Heidmarch's page

"My heartfelt condolences." Mrs. Heidmarch tells Grergof.

Venture Captain Sheila Heidmarch decided to attend the ceremony. She greets Bevaluu and hands her a small package containing the needed gem for the raising.

Again applause fills the room as relief spreads through the place.

"Thank you very much for taking this on you." Mrs. Heidmarch concludes that point.

"That is all for today. A guest house is prepared if you like to use it. I can lead you there."

"But for now, you are all dismissed. Have a peaceful night."

Mrs. Heidmarch joins the group. "If you need anything, knowledge, gear, other kinds of support, please let me know. I'll help as good as I can."

"But there are is another topic that we need to talk about. We believe there is another danger that needs your attention. But first lets hear Toth Bhreacher, who’s studied Thassilonian constructs more than anyone else in Magnimar. He wants to tell us what the meaning could be of the constructs that attacked Magnimar today."

As all are assembled in the meeting house around a large table, which are besides the group of heroes also the complete Sihedron Council from the last meeting, she starts.

"Thank you all for coming. And I want to thank especially you Grergof Varsk, Darius Redgrave, Spugnoir and Abomentolor Goblinburner for defending the city in this dire situation that arose."

The whole council gets up and applauds the four until after a few minutes, Mrs. Heidmarch continues with her speech. "We are all tired and exhausted after these events and the aftermath, but there are three topics we need to discuss."

"First, you are to get your reward. I was planned as an appreciation of your efforts to recover the shards of the sihedron. It seems quaint now in light of the latest events and what you have done for the city. But nonetheless it is my honor to gift each of you with a wayfinder of endless doorways, inscribed with your name."

She hands out the wayfinders to each of the heroes, again under the applause of the council. This bronze wayfinder is decorated with garnets and emeralds, and even without its magical properties would be worth a small fortune.

Mrs. Heidmarch joins the group after Grergof's speech. "The ritual worked without a hiccup, and the speech was great. You won over the crowd."

"That went even better than I imagined."

Mrs. Heidmarch is pleased with the outcome of this meeting and leans back, watching them indulge in topics she doesn't really care about.

Once everyone is there Mrs. Heidmarch ushers everyone into the Meeting House. As everyone is seated at the large table she starts. “Greetings, friends and associates, and thank you for agreeing to join the Sihedron Council. Ten days from now, in the afternoon we will gather atop the Irespan to perform the Ritual of Reforging. I’ll give a short speech to introduce the council members, in particular the heroes who braved certain death to gather the shards of the Shattered Star, and then they’ll have a chance to regale the gathered crowd with tales of their adventures. Next, all seven shards will be brought together and placed in the Sihedron Shrine I’ll have my people haul up out of the dungeons under the Crow. We’ll need several spellcasters to help siphon magical energy into the shards."

"Any questions so far?"

"The reforging is a ritual, that has to be performed by seven mages. You can take part yourself with your shard. Gwenhyfar can too. Basically everyone with powerful arcane magic. For all positions you can't or don't want to fill, there will be a mage from the Pathfinder Society."

"And we'll need some time to prepare the ritual. The place has to be set up and such an event will draw a lot of attention and a large audience. I expect at least a week preparation time, once all is planned."

"Wonderful. So we have a way forward. I will invite to another meeting tomorrow where the representatives of the city and from the Pathfinder Society - mostly from Absalom - will be informed about this."

"The meeting will be at 6pm, in the lounge of the meeting house."

You want to do something, or shall I skip to the next meeting?

"If you can't come to an agreement, I can take it too." Mrs. Heidmarch suggests slightly annoyed from this turn of events.

"And who says it has to stay with the same person all the time. You could take turns. Every week someone else."

"And there is was hoping this would be the meeting that'd go smooth and without discussions." Mrs. Heidmarch sighs and rests her face in her hands.

"We can't know for sure. But we know that single runelords have come back without us doing anything. Also, if it really would happen, then we'd have you and the sihedron to fix that, right?"

"Second answer first: Miss Gwenhwyfar wrote and is still writing about the progress of this endeavor for the pathfinder chronicles. And I have mentioned the general idea on several occasions without giving any details."

"My information about the ritual that would merge the parts is taken from what could be found about the original creation of the sihedron."

Two days later a messenger informs the group, that Mrs. Heidmarch has returned from her journey.

She invites to a meeting, where all who were involved in gathering the shards are present. "It is fantastic news that you managed to find and recover all the seven shards. The goal of this endeavour is, as at least the original group should know, to reforge the Sihedron. The sihedron was an artifact created by Xin, the ruler of Thassilon, before he was murdered and the artifact was broken into the seven shards by the runelords."

"Any questions?"

"You can ask Wumbrout about that. I'm sure we have something in the Meeting house. And Wumbrout knows where."

"They belonged to the Runelords. And as some of them refused to stay dead lately, we want to be prepared. They are named shards, because once they were one piece named Sihedron. Which gave the founder of Thassilon, the Archmage Xin, a lot of power. Those who overthrew him broke it apart and each of them took one. But if one of them returns, they might go after all of them. And I like to be ahead of that."

"The shards are not necessarily evil, so I don't think that will help. Maybe extra-planar storage room? I don't really know. Artifacts are too special to tell from experience."

"How about you simply take the ioun stone, add it to your shard and then we can discuss how you can to help those needy children with my wealth" Mrs. Heidmarch suggests.

"Welcome, take a seat." Mrs. Heidmarch offers.

After the party gives a short recollection of events and points out that there is need for another ioun stone she explains "I was able to collect the necessary ioun stone. But this is a rather expensive endeaver and I would appreciate if you could chip in to cover the cost." She opens a darwer and puts the dusty rose prism stone on the desk. "It costs 5000 gold."

"Yes. May you do well!"

"You're sure you don't mistake stubbornness for strong willed?" Mrs. Heidmarch teases the gnome.

"But anyway, is there something else I can help you with?"

"With some of the shards one has to be strong willed, for others it seems to be something inevitable. The reports I got from the shards collected so far, the effects were bearable, but sometimes embarrassing. I'm glad I could offer the ioun stone for the shard of lust beforehand."

"I know of nothing that could prevent the effect for sure, but an extra dimensional space might do the trick. For some of the effects it only needs a strong willed person to resist the temptation."

"Please be aware that the shards, in this case the shard of envy, has a very negative effect on those that carry them. It will make the carrier envious to an appalling degree. I'm still working on obtaining the matching ioun stone, that neutralizes this effect. So be careful."

"You seem really eager to take on that challenge. The current situation is, that someone took control over Windsong Abbey where the next shard is hidden. That person must de stopped and the shard recovered."

"Last status was, that the giants rampaging through the surroundings were taken care of and the stories below are partly cleaned from cultists and abominations from the Abyss. But that is information that is two weeks old already."

Mrs. Heidmarch raises a brow on the mentioning of the Gallowspire. She closes the ledger she was working on and puts it aside.

"With corruption you don't mean the Whispering Tyrant himself, do you?"

"But you're informed correctly. Since the rise of the Runelord Karzoug in Varisia I've been looking to prepare for the time more of those powerful mages might come back. It is a real annoyance that once a person reaches this kind of power you can't tell for sure if they stay dead. When I heard rumors of one of the shards of the Shattered Star being in Magnimar I grabbed the opportunity and 'sponsored' the search for it."

"It is for sure a worthy cause, especially as other forces with more sinister goals are after the shards too. But I assume I can't offer you much more than the prospect of doing good, as you are well off yourself in material regards. The help would be much appreciated though. For finding the remaining shards, as well as reigning in Abomentolor."

You appear in a private office, that is very elegantly furnished. Bookcases filled with pathfinder report books and other historical literature. A massive desk made of the same teak. Two matching armchairs with crimson upholstering.

The room is 10 feet high with beautiful wall covering. The tall window gives a view over the park like garden.

Behind the desk sits in straight posture a stern looking woman. It is only a little flinch as her private office is intruded. "I told you once not to do that. I won't tell you a third time." she scolds Abomentolor.

"To what do I owe the honor of your visit." she greets the other gentlemen, though her face shows, that it is not yet decided if this is an honor.

"I wouldn't jump to conclusions here. But if he is gone for now, that means our investigations into Windsong Abbey come to a halt for now. We'll see if Abomentolor returns anytime soon. If he doesn't I'll look out for someone to replace him on the quest." the venture captain states.

"I'll keep my ears open and let you know if something comes up. If he stay's missing, we could try some divination about his whereabouts. You tell me when you deem that necessary and I'll arrange that."

"Sorry, but I haven't heard of him. He wasn't here, and no one came complaining that his oversized ego caused major damage on his way through town. Why do you ask?"

"How about you make yourself familiar with the basement? Or Wumbrout's office, maybe? There has to be a way that you don't turn my office into a terminal for corpses."

"Get that medusa out of here. Put it in a blanket and bring it over to the meeting house. Wumbrout shall show you where to put her."

Mrs. Heidmarch is startled, but that doesn't show. She is also irritated and that clearly shows. "Have you ever heard of knocking?" she inquires.

"We're done here. Tauriell, would you please take that gnome and the bird with you, when you leave? Thank you." Mrs. Heidmarsh tells, and gets up, complimenting all out of her office.

"Feel free to take that room, and while you're at it, find out who really still lives in the guest house." Mrs. Heidmarsh tells Koriah.

"You're able to tell me where I'd find you two?" she turns to Tauriell again.

"Sure." Mrs. Heidmarch tells. "Are all of you out of the guesthouse by now?" she asks Tauriell and Abomentolor.

"Nothing specific. But you seem confused and Master Nivlandis doesn't need to watch you regain your mind and your manners." Mrs. Heidmarch tells looking at Abomentolor at the end.

"You're free to leave, but tell me where to find you, so I can send Jimmy and Gwenhwyfar after you." And to Abomentolor she adds "If you feel the need of payback - either towards the ones who turned you to stone, or the ones who turned you back - feel free to do so."

"If there is nothing else from your side - there is a nice talk over tea waiting for me."

Tauriell moves to the shelf, pulls the tome out, opens it and pulls the arrow through. Taking another look at what the book is about, she closes it and puts it back in the shelf. "That's a good question. They didn't clear out the abbey on their own, did they? There is probably more work to do."

In the Manor

The she turns to their benefactor. "Thank you very much for your invaluable help, Master Nivlandis. If you like, Margaret can show you to the lounge already. I'll join you in a few minutes, once I've dealt with our two ex statues."

"Your team did. You obviously didn't." Mrs. Heidmarch makes an attempt at cutting the oversized ego of the little gnome.

"You once more showed up in my office more dead than alive. This becomes an unhealthy habit of yours." she adds with a dead serious face.

Mrs. Heidmarch raises a brow and looks with a side glance what book has died now. She is most angry about herself for not thinking about that, but keeps it to herself.

"A week maybe? You can ask your father later. He should know precisely." Mrs. Heidmarch replies.

Meanwhile in Mrs. Heidmarch's office.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Welcome, and thank you for coming on such short notice." Mrs. Heidmarch greets Master Leis Nivlandis.

Mrs. Heidmarsh starts writing some letters. One she hands to Casamir. "Bring this to Bevaluu Zimantiu at Cynosure Tower. She for sure wants to know what happened to Windsong Abbey and might be able to help."

For the other one she rings for Margaret and hands her a letter. "For the head of the Stone of the Seers. Not many can cast the spell needed to revert that, but he should be."

"And now it is waiting again. I suggest in the meantime you familiarize yourself with the kind of enemies you faced so far to be better prepared next time."

"That's a whole list of problems then. The petrification is pretty easy. We just need to call in a favour and hope that Master Leis Nivlandis isn't too busy."

"And even if he doesn't or you can prevent that, you need to prepare better to face him. I don't want this to become the standard for our meetings. Mrs. Heidmarch analyses the situation.

After about half an hour Mrs. Heidmarsh comes into the office. She closes the door behind her and takes a seat behind her desk.

Looking at the statues of Abomentolor, Tauriell and Koriah she sighs. Looking at Jimmy and Gwenhwyfar she comments "You did well. No one dead so far, and all in my safe office."

After a pause she asks "What happened?"

"Before you go." Mrs. Heidmarch interrupts "I have here something you might need on that trip." She hands over a small pouch.

"I suggest you make haste, as we don't know the reasons behind this attack." Mrs. Heidmarch suggests.

"I know that the temple is generous in it's rewards, but we are not doing this as mercenaries." Mrs. Heidmarch replies diplomatically.

"Thank you for coming back. An opportunity arose that we may be able to help you sooner than I thought. May I introduce you? This is Bevaluu Zimantiu, head of Cynosure Tower, our local temple of Desna." Mrs. Heidmarch tells and adds "This is Tauriell. She is part of a group that might be able to help with your problem. She has come to know that Windsong Abbey is in ruins through other means and came to inquire why."

"Margaret, would you please hurry and see, if you can catch Bevaluu Zimantiu? I guess she can answer that." Mrs. Heidmarch asks her assistant.

"It is interesting, that you ask. How do you know about it?" Mrs. Heidmarch inquires.

"Where did that sudden fog come from?" you hear the voice of Mrs. Heidmarch out of the mist.