—
Banagher looks over his shoulder, sees Erik, and says, simply…”Oh…”
Time Stops
You know that feeling you get, when something not only completely life-changing, but utterly horrible happens?  It’s that pit-of-your-stomach, I’m-living-in-a-nightmare feeling.  The kind of feeling that’s so bad, when you
wake up the next morning and you realize it wasn’t a dream you just want to weep?
A final piece falls into place in the puzzle of your mind and there’s a “click”.

You see a noble woman waving her hand at you, saying she doesn’t approve of being watched…
You see blood on the wall of a prison…”The woman is a lie”
You hear her snarl in your ear to destroy your enemies…”Smite them!” she said
You hear Volkov’s voice saying, “they’re so paranoid they use the Warders as messengers…”
The woman is a lie.
You see her bending over the sleeping form of Poppy…but it wasn’t sadness…it was pain…
The woman is a lie.
You see Her, face painted, waking you out of a dream… “Erik’s in trouble!”
The woman is a lie.
The voice of the ancient one “I feel her mark on you…”
The woman is a lie.
You remember the massive rush of power, the fire from the sky, Diego’s voice in the distance, saying the WayGate is open…
The veil is lifting.
The woman is a lie.
Westergarde.  Eight years ago.  You’re on the battlements of the Keep, watching Kironius Mengst, bathed in light, on the field, standing down the ringwielder Tor’Ellian Tahl’Mearis, and there she is, striding to him, handing him her sword with which to strike down Kishara’s greatest general.  And you see past the illusion.  You
see past the lie.
It was not her.  [Aluviel]
It was her. [Lady of Penshin]

The woman at your ear changes.  The black hair melts away to blonde.  She smiles a sultry smile and runs a finger along your chin.
It’s not his fault, really.  The sword…it’s first owner – Ri’tu Delial – was mad.  No human mind could withstand his influence for long.  The Circle in Erebor’s been trying to bring him in for years.  Lucky for me, he’s one of the greatest swordsmen who’s ever lived.  He endures.
What, surprised?  Do you really think you little men channel some sort of divine power?
She giggles then, a light, girlish thing.
What you have comes from me.  What all of you have comes from me.  Haven’t you wondered?  Hasn’t anyone mentioned the stain in your eyes?
Let us put an end to this foolishness, join me.  Teach me who betrayed me at Westergarde.  Be my mightiest general.  My lover.  Take the ring.
—

A sense of calm comes over Banagher, and he turns and smiles serenely at the rest of the party, before emitting a bone-curdling, reality-twisting scream – a burst of energy flows from him into the sky, and it consumes him completely.  Leaving only ash, which crumbles to the ground.  After a moment of stunned silence, the
party engages Erik, and a short, pitched battle ensues before a massive hit from Gronk leaves the door open for a rifle shot from Alton to slay the Etu’sauri. The party tries to save Stein’s life, but he expires.

Footsteps alert the party to the approach of the Ringwielder Ari Stonehand.  He is dressed in robes, face covered in a mask.  Before he can say a word, Gronk opens the music box, and it seems to have a dramatic effect on him.  He jerks, his eyes widen, and he begins to stumble forward, humming the lullaby as though half
controlled lips.  He falls into Gronk, then leaps back, hissing.  Gronk opens his hand to discover the Ring of Earth in his palm, and the High Strangler who once wielded Ari Stonehand screams as the stone of the floor envelops
him.

Epilogue:

There must’ve been a Strangler in the Southlanders’ camp, because mere moments after Ari went off the reservation, the army pulled way back out of range of High Guard’s guns and starting hunkering down for a siege.  The General over there was no dummy, and he’d had several years to learn from the best about how to keep an army bottled up behind that wall.

Fate sometimes brings people together for specific events, for a moment.  For the span of a single season, just a few short months, thirty-two years after the Kisharan invasion, fate brought seven people together, and their footsteps were felt for generations.

It was found out later that Banagher’s final act was a release of energy so intense, it destroyed the top of Tablenhelm Mountain, utterly destroying the keep and burying the Waygate for five hundred years, greatly reducing the power of Kishara’s minions and effectively removing the threat of Avengers.
No one ever really knew what happened to Banagher in that moment, but every priest of Aluviel in all the lands went mad at relatively the same time – some turned into psychopathic killing machines, other simply went catatonic.  Warder Thomas was one of the latter.  Warder Vladimir Korgramssen spent a number of months
nursing him back to health.  Recovered, they became inseparable – and synonymous with blood, booze, and women.  They were known as Mengst’s Mad Northmen, and he particularly enjoyed sending them on diplomatic missions to the court of Duke Tyr.  He even took them as his personal guard to the Second Council of
Westergarde….

Isabella Vasquez, with her high court training and extensive education, landed in the relatively primitive court of Duke Stephan Tyr like a boulder in a pond.  It wasn’t long until she became the most powerful woman in the North, manipulating the court and the Duke (from his bed, if the rumors were to be believed).  Many
wonder if it were she who whispered the words that started the war….

Corky Bogbottom built a little shack for himself in the ashes of Harfoot Downs.  He ate from a garden that he kept, and never invented another thing.

Shara Tev and Chumley, both weary of war, travelled into the Eastern Wastes.  Word has it she rebuilt a thriving trade empire amongst the Caliphates.

Don Diego Vasquez never quite adjusted to military life.  After a few months of a relatively boring state of detente with the South, he recruited a number of other disenfranchised nobles and their retinues and snuck back into the Southlands.  Almost immediately, stories began filtering back about a band of highwaymen and pirates wreaking havoc with the Kisharans on land and sea.  The trade routes and especially military convoys weren’t safe.  At roughly the same time, Pedro Vasquez founded a philanthropic organization that provided alms to the poor and downtrodden, giving special attention to those who had been wronged by the Kisharan hierarchy.  The organization’s funds seemed curiously endless.  After several years of these adventures and several very major public embarrassments, Cyan Marinetta and Aril Flambeau formed a task force of people
specifically recruited to hunt down the ringleaders of the organization.  Soon after, the stories stopped – there simply ceased to be any new tales of daring-do by the masked crusaders.  But that’s okay, because the old stories were retold for generations among the peasantry of the South.

The Emperor Joseph Altair didn’t survive his freedom long – upon learning of the death of his eldest son during the invasion, and the recent murder of his youngest daughter Anastasia, the woman who called herself Annabelle Cirrus – he simply didn’t seem to want to survive.  He and Sir Sebastien Bineau, his sworn
defender, died within days of each other.  Sir Robert Kirk, Sir Gavin, and the Etu’Sauri Lucas lived on for a number of years, each trying to win the award for Wiliest Old Bastard, each serving the Imperial line in their own
ways.

Kironius Mengst was never quite the same after all of the betrayals and losses – especially that of Anabelle.  He remained as competent as ever, but aloof.  It’s said that, besides Volkov, he never made another true friend.  He travelled with Altair’s two surviving sons, the eldest of whom was crowned Emperor in a small ceremony in Hillcrest, to the Second Council of Westergarde, to discuss the future of the Empire.  All three, and their defenders Warders Thomas and Vladimir, perished in the betrayal that started the Succession War.  In a sad
bit of irony, Kironius Mengst died without ever – the whole of his life – setting foot in the Southlands.
Warder Vladimir did fight his way free of the initial trap that killed Mengst and escaped with the Emperor, and spent weeks evading the pursuit of the Duke’s forces.  He was found, finally, with sympathetic magic, using a lock of hair from the Duke’s son, who, as it turns out, wasn’t the Duke’s son at all.  Cornered in a small barn in a no-name village Southeast of Westergarde, he defended Emperor Frederic Altair for three days, slowly barricading himself behind a wall of Duke Tyr’s dead.  It is said, in the end, that it took a hundred men, two ballistae, and a wizard before Warder Vladimir Korgramssen gave up his charge.

Moriel Celebhen went home.  She took up the Ri’tu Delail Sword, bearing the weight of its former mad wielder and its latest tortured one.  A few years later, a number of individuals began making themselves known – all of them exceptionally trained woodsmen and using a swordfighting style that was slightly reminiscent of that
of the Etu’Sauri.  They called themselves A’she’te – The Shadow Walkers – and in a few short years they could be found in or near every seat of power in Khevoran.  Their mission wouldn’t be revealed for nearly a thousand years – but that’s another story.  For the rest of recorded history, the Ri’tu Delial sword never troubled another soul.

Alton continued to advance in the Society, very rapidly reaching the rank of Sergeant Major and holding the post once held by Gareth Stein.  When news of the betrayal reached High Guard, Volkov and Smoot mustered the loyal armies of the North under the banner of Emperor Severin – a young man who just a few years before
served you a simple dinner in a farm at the edges of the Ar’Avariel – Alton vehemently disagreed, arguing that the Society shouldn’t escalate a civil war, and most certainly shouldn’t deplete the forces manning High Guard – but Volkov was loyal to Mengst, and Smoot was loyal to the Empire, and neither would be convinced.  After they marched, Alton assumed command of the company, and recruited enough loyal Society men to bring the force up to the strength of a battalion.  When Volkov and Smoot failed to return, he took the rank of Colonel
and recruited a new set of officers, and notified both armies in the civil war that the Society defended the people of the North, and would continue to stand post against the Kisharans while Tyr and Volkov fought it out.  Independent of the evolving governing body of the peoples of the North, The Black Rose Society, under the command of Colonel Alton, defended the wall and the southern Massaan range against the South for many years.  When they finally massed enough strength to take High Guard, he stayed behind, ensuring his men had time to retreat to safety, effectively saving the Society from annihilation.  Stories are told amongst the veterans of the South, of how the entire might of Kishara was held at bay for three days by two Warders and an officer with a long-gun.
The general of the Southlands army personally returned Alton’s body to the Society under a flag of truce, and remained to fly honors at his internment at Hillcrest.

Poppy Sokledodge finally found her followers.  They called themselves The Magnificent Ones, but everyone else called them The Eaters Of The Dead, or, colloquially, The Herd Of Batshit Crazy Halflings.  Poppy’s cult of personality attracted a certain self-obsessed glory-hound – thankfully those aren’t traits most halflings are predisposed to or else she likely would’ve ended up with an entire army at her beckon call.  They were impulsive, reckless, generally devious, impossible to control, and astoundingly dangerous.  On more than one occasion,
Mengst sent private messages to his counterpart in the South explaining that one disaster or another was completely out of his control.  One Spring, Poppy gathered up the lot of them and went on a pilgrimage to Harfoot Downs, where she, and her entire cult, vanished.  Some say they went East to find their lost
brethren, some say that old Leitus finally caught up with her, and others still say that Poppy found something there in the ruins of The Downs that sent her on a quest into the frozen North to find the ancestral home from whence all halflings came.

King Thane Ironfist, Lord of the Great Hall, Defender of The People, bore the tortured spirit of Ari Stonehand to the mountains.  He formally abdicated his throne to his son Borin, and kept himself apart from Dwarven politics.  He always lived near the front lines where he could wield Ari’s power against the hordes of the deep.  With his help, within two years, the Dwarves had retaken Karak’ap’Karak and restored the Great Way.  He continued to call himself Gronk, though no Dwarf would ever call him such again, and he stubbornly refused to answer to Thane Ironfist.  In time, The People began to refer to him by a new name – Ar’Kaz t’Thun:
The Lord of Ash And Stone.

The End.

When they arrive, they find the facility abandoned, ten Elven Etu’sauri are on the premises, they have been sent to punish Leitus for his crimes and are hunting for clues as to his whereabouts.  When Poppy inadvertently uncovers such a clue, indicating that Leitus may have fled into the Eastern Wastes, the Etu’sauri depart with the promise that if they find Leitus, they will return with any warpstone he may be carrying.

The party quickly finds the flooded mine shaft which leads to the goblin cave, after a few attempts, Gronk swims into the murk and discovers a plug left by Leitus’ Dwarven engineers, and uses it to drain just enough water from the tunnel to open up space to breathe.  Moriel travels to the fort two miles away and instructs 3rd Battalion to start their assault, then returns.  The party strips down to their respective skivvies (except for Vladimir, who strips down completely, ritualistically painting himself in Warder wax paint. including, let us not any of us forget, decorating his privates as a dragon), takes only weapons what will not be harmed by submersion along with two small explosive charges Gronk brought from Hillcrest, and begins the long swim through the dark.  Roughly halfway through the tunnel, they discover another warpstone sorting room that appears to have been flooded with its cache of stone intact, they continue on to the end of the tunnel.

When they emerge in the mine chamber, they find it empty, the goblins all distracted at the cave entrance defending their fortress against the assault of the Northland Army.  After sneaking through the tunnels, they find their way inexorably blocked by the horde, with no way to proceed to a point where the explosives could properly seal the bloom.  After some argument over what to do next, Banagher promptly lights the fuses on the powder kegs, grasps them, speaks a word of power, and vanishes, much to the party’s surprise.  He teleports himself to the head of the bloom, drops the lit kegs down the shaft, then teleports back to the party – but not before the goblins hear the commotion.  They flood into the tunnel, and the party mounts a brief defense before retreating.  Again, much to the party’s surprise, Banagher somehow ignites himself in a holy fire, killing hundreds of the small goblins in the swarm and allowing the party to retreat to rear chamber and barricade the door.

The explosives detonate, collapsing the bloom and preventing more goblins from coming to the aid of their brethren on the surface.  The army troops quickly overwhelm the fort and use fire to flush out the remaining goblins.

The party emerges from the caves to the shock of the assembled troops.  Soaking wet, covered in goblin blood, and almost entirely naked (except, again, Vlad, who was completely naked, with a roused…dragon), the party serenely walks through the troops and into the woods back towards Leitus’ compound as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

Just as Vladimir is freed and the party begins to recover, a Strangler unleashes fire on the party and continues a barrage of spells until he is put down.  The Strangler wore a bracelet that appeared to be bound to the tendrils of fog that were surrounding the dragon.

The party spends some time tending their critically wounded, and then heads back towards Hillcrest (the head of the dragon dragging behind some of the horses).  On their way they encounter small pockets of fleeing goblins and then scouts from 3^rd Battalion, who inform the party that the battle is won and the 3^rdhas been sent to the goblin cave-turned-fortress to besiege it and prevent the greenskins from mustering for another assault.

The battle at Hillcrest claimed the lives of roughly two thousand Northland army troops and the slaughter of tens of thousands of goblins.  Of Society men, Cutter, Lassiter, Goblin, and Warder Kev were lost in the battle.  The party findsVolkov sitting with the bodies of his last two men and helps him with their burial before separating for healing and food.  The Society and the commanding officers of the five Northland battalions meet several hours later to discuss plans for the future.  After discussing issues of logistics (it’s discovered that Goblin had been magically treating the camp’s water and preserving the teeth of the army from rot and disease), Volkov addresses the need to bottle up the goblins.  With nearly infinite reinforcements from their bloom, there is no practical way to conquer the fort directly, and besieging it long-term is unfeasible.  The party recalls that the bloom backed into a mine extension from Leitus’ compound, and volunteers to head back to the ancient elf’s demesne in an attempt to collapse the cave from the rear.

As they depart to rest (and provide a proper Warder funeral for Kev). Volkov mentions that they should make haste, because when they’re done they’re going to have to go find out what the dwarves have been up to the last thirty years….

—

Simultaneously, both deep in the forest behind the goblin lines and in an unmarked tent in the center of the Northland camp, there is an explosion so hot that it incinerates everything within ten yards, leaving only a sheet of glass with no sign to be seen of a circle of deep ones, or of a tiny old man, whose name really wasn’t Goblin.

—

“Fucking amateurs,” he growls, just before the bomb explodes.

When Alton asks about Donus and Fern, Volkov says that Fern felt she could convince Xander that it was all a misunderstanding and that Stein is suspect, but something obviously went wrong. Volkov had ordered his men to flee the area and knows no further details of the altercation except that it ended in Donus and Fern’s death.

When Gronk questions why Stein would’ve sent the party to kill Volkov, Moriel notices that Shar’we has left the room and a strange smell is permeating the room. Everyone attempts to evacuate before the explosive detonates, but Lars, Steen, Kirk, and Bink are killed in the explosion. Moriel and Volkov pursue Shar’we out into the woods, where Volkov uses Alton’s Mickleson rifle to kill the fleeing traitor at range. The elves refuse to let the party back into Sidarth’minwe, but send out wardens to help heal the multitude of small wounds and provide refreshments for the party while they wait for an audience with Etari’sul – whom Volkov has been learning a great deal of facts about the Ringwielders with during their self-imposed isolation.

Two-thousand years previously, Etari’sul went on an expsedition to the WayGate with Leitus and discovered a great deal of information about Kishara in the artifacts. He also says that some artifacts that are believed to be Ari Stonehand’s belongings were discovered, and he believes they were taken by the dwarves and are held in the vaults of Karak’Ven or Karak’ap’Karak.

Very little is known about the nature of the Ringwielders except that they wield spectacular powers beyond the ken of even the most powerful wizards of Khevoran. Most believe they are priests channeling the power of their goddess Kishara directly through the rings they wear. The truth of the matter is that it is the rings themselves which contain the power. Cyan Marinetta, for example, is not the name of the woman bearing the Ring of Water, it is the name of an immensely powerful sorceress enthralled by Kishara at the dawn of time, her spirit and power bound to the artifact. These individual spirits are so powerful that they tend to completely decimate the personality of the ring-bearer, essentially granting the spirit a form of parasitic reincarnation. When the bearer is killed or grows too old for the spirit’s power to sustain them, the ring is transferred to a new host and the cycle begins again. For this reason, the Ringwielders usually appear in public shrouded or masked in order to preserve continuity with the populace if and when they take new hosts.

Unbeknownst to just about everyone, Ari Stonehand is a little different. Stonehand was a geomancer of incredible power in his day, but unlike his peers was very grounded (no pun intended) and even-keeled. He was not seduced, but defeated and enslaved by Kishara and Tahl’Mearis. As such, his hosts are chosen differently than those of his peers (who tend to choose strong, attractive, weak-willed sods as hosts). Hosts for the Ring of Earth tend to come from the Stranglers – the Kisharan priesthood – and usually involve a lifetime of grooming a fanatically loyal and incredibly strong-willed psychopathic killing machine who can dominate the spirit of Stonehand and manipulate his power. This selection process, combined with the goddess’ ability to destroy the rings and their imbued spirits essentially at will, has kept Ari Stonehand prisoner for millennia.

The party departs for Everwatch to warn Mengst of the traitor in his midst and to determine their next steps for retaking High-Guard. As they are crossing the foothills of the Massaan, they see in the distance one of the great peaks of the North/South range of the Massaan collapse along with a massive accompanying earthquake. None except perhaps Gronk understand the significance. When they arrive at Everwatch, they find the garrison in a heightened state of alert. They find Smoot, Cedric, and Goblin in their cups in the command tent. They relay that Stein near-fatally stabbed Mengst with a poisoned dagger and took the Ring of Spirit. In his escape, he also killed Company Wizard Deke Winter and Anabelle Cirrus, the latter sends Gronk into a vengeance fury. They discover that Stein was the personal assassin of Duke Stephen before joining up with Mengst. All of the Warders who were in camp left in pursuit.

In their absence, the goblins in the forest have been whipped into battle lines, and are threatening a full-scale invasion of Hillcrest. The next morning, Volkov (who is the ranking Society officer still on his feet) convenes a war council and instructs the party to circle around the battle lines, find whatever it is that’s organizing and driving the horde, and eliminate it. That evening, the party observes from a distance waves of goblins crashing into the lines of the Northlands Army, and as they set off to sneak behind their lines, they see a great winged form in the distance, emitting a terrible shriek. Vladimir asks the obvious question.

“Ees dat a dragon?”

The party travels on to Sidarthe’minwe and finds the underground archive of the Elves protected by a fog-like barrier which both Gronk and Moriel recognize as an old anti-siege spell commonly employed by the Elves, indicating that the archive, at least, has been defended against the curse that has befallen the other Elven cities. They find indications that others had recently spent time at the edge of the barrier, but can otherwise not get the attention of anyone who may be inside the fortress.

After some discussion, it’s decided that the party will head East and attempt to find Leitus’ abode. After several weeks of searching through the goblin-infested woods East of Hillcrest, the party finally comes across the entrance to an underground complex, guarded by an Elf and a Dwarf. The party is invited in, the Dwarf mentions that his master has been waiting for “Mengst to send someone to apologize”. They are led down into the complex which appears to be inhabited by several hundred peoples of all races, all of whom appear to look very slightly ill – a condition Gronk recognizes as likely warpstone poisoning. They are introduced to Leitus in his expansive laboratory, which also contained the bodies of a Halfling and a Human who had obviously recently been tortured, Alton recognizes them as Ferris and Shep – both from Volkov’s unit. After some exposition it is found that the two rogue soldiers had attempted to infiltrate Leitus’ compound in an attempt to steal his device – which he has been developing for over a thousand years in an attempt to seal the Waygate. Leitus is convinced that he can develop a counter to the Waygate, essentially sealing it closed, but he requires vast volumes of star-metal to accomplish his goals – which is why he has been mining the region as he’s discovered impact sites – the mine behind the goblin bloom is one such mine (they collapsed and flooded it when they realized they wouldn’t be able to keep the goblins out). The neutrality of the elven peoples hit Leitus hard, and for thirty years (a moment in time to him, really) he’s harbored quite a bit of anger. So when it came time to test one of his devices – a device which shifts the very fabric of the universe around a locale – he chose Tir’Valar. The device essentially locks every living thing frozen in time. He freely offers the party all the star-metal they may need to construct Corky’s anti-cannon device, on the condition that Mengst agrees to meet him to foster cooperation.

As Moriel becomes increasingly agitated, the party withdraws from the compound to discuss their options and to avoid a confrontation. While they are discussing their options, they lose track of Poppy, who presumably snuck off during the argument to take matters into her own hands. Roughly half an hour later, a plume of smoke begins to trickle from the underground compound, and Poppy emerges with Leitus’ device, sprinting ahead of his very angry followers. The party escapes to Everwatch, where they brief Mengst and let Smoot and Corky discover how to operate the device. From there, they proceed in turn to Dorothea, J’sta, and Tir’Valar to release the Elves from their imprisonment. In Tir’Valar, Moriel is nearly set upon by Cutter, Lars, Steen, and Kirk, four of Volkov’s men who were attempting to prevent Leitus from activating his device. Detente is established and the four men plus the party proceed on to Sidarthe’minwe.

The wardens of Sidarthe’minwe recognize Cutter’s team, disarm everyone and lead them and the party in through some galleries to a small study, where they find the scholar Etari’sul, as well as Volkov and the last of his team – Shar’we, Bink, and Lassiter. It is revealed that Volkov was seeking Etari’sul to discover secrets of the Ringwielders and had been trapped when the Elves defended themselves from Leitus’ plot. When pressed about his perceived betrayals, he rubs his temples and responds:

“You idiots…Stein is a Kisharan!”

Lieutenant Stein briefs the party on their next mission, which is to trace down Master Sergeant Sergei Volkov and his rogue unit. Rumor has it that the team passed through the half-elf village of Faye’s Hope late in the fall.

The next day, the party sets off West, and after a day’s travel arrive at a small sustenance farm nestled between the foothills of the Masaan and the edges of the Ar’Avariel forest. The party passes two men in their late thirties who obviously recognize Gronk, and approaches one of the two homesteads on the property. They are invited in for tea by an aging man who seems to be slowly succumbing to infirmity, who greets Gronk and Annabelle warmly. They inform the man of the death of his son (Warder Joseph) and discuss a number of other points. The man and Gronk speak on and off in Dwarvish to one another. When Alton mentions that they sighted a man they believe to be the Emperor Altair, Sebastien becomes immediately agitated, and Annabelle rushes out to speak with the two men tending the farm – who appear by all accounts to be her siblings. Sebastien allows the party to spend the night in his home, and sees them off the next morning. Annabelle and the two men were nowhere to be seen.

The party proceeds to the half-elven trading post of Faye’s Hope, where the party finds an ambush in waiting at the village trading post. Six men were arrayed to ambush the party when they entered, but upon seeing the party contained two Warders and one very similarly and terrifyingly-armored old Dwarf, decided against the ambush and attempted miserably to look like they were going about their business. When interrogated, it was revealed that they were mercenaries from Clearwater hired by Volkov to intercept anyone who may be on the rogue’s trail. The party allowed them to leave. Tanis, the proprietor of the trading post and an old friend of Moriel and Poppy, informs the party that Volkov did pass through in the late Fall – there were ten of them total at the time. Volkov was asking about a fairly renown Elven thinker named Etari’sul – last anyone heard Etari’sul lived in Sidarthe’minwe, deep in the forest – which also houses the Ar’Avarial Elves’ Evarre’tenin – their Trust. The people of the village are ill at ease, most of them have a feeling that something sinister is happening in the forest, but they know not what. They haven’t heard much of anything out of the forest for a while, which isn’t particularly abnormal.

The party heads into the Ar’Avarial to Dorothea, home of Moriel and, briefly, of Poppy. They find the ancient Elven village completely empty, no people, no animals, no insects, and the structures themselves do not look as if they’d ever been lived in. The lifelessness extends in a perfect circle radiating from the center of the village, where the party finds the only sign of life – a scrape on a rock from a steel-shod boot. The next village over, J’sta, is the same. They proceed to Tir’Valar, the largest city in the Ar’Avariel forest and it too, in all its majesty, is deserted. The border of Tir’Valar is patrolled by golems taller than the trees – wardens designed by the elves to be left behind after their passing to keep younger races from their secrets. On a tree at the edge of the Tir’valar circle of lifelessness, the party finds the word “LEITUS” carved into the trunk.

True to his word, Pedro is found waiting some leagues south of Penshin on the coast with the much-needed supplies. The six week journey around the horn and up the coast to Werstergarde goes without incident, during the time, Lucas takes Moriel under his wing and begins to train her as an Etu’Sauri, and Gronk has a conversation with Sir Robert which results in him making even more haste. In Westergarde, sir Robert and Lucas depart and Vladimir uses his connections in the city to secure a job for Isabella as a lady in waiting for the Duchess. The party secures a carriage and authorization to swap their team out at the mail stations and spend the remainder of the winter travelling the Imperial road to Hillcrest.

Arriving, they find that the refugees from Riverton had arrived safely in the fall, as well as the half-giant Chumley. Itchy had died of his wounds from the explosion, and Shara Tev had taken over his position as Company quartermaster. There have been increased goblin raids from the East through the winter, and there had been some starvation amongst the army. The party, along with Corky, reports in to Mengst, who congratulates them on their mission and tells them to report to Stein in the morning to pick up the hunt for Sergei Volkov and his unit. That night, Poppy and Vladimir are approached by Warder Thomas and given the post of Warder, and Gronk receives a more impressive suit of armor than he bargained for when he originally placed his order with Itchy.

At the appointed time, the party proceeds to the wharf where they meet up with Sir Robert and his men – composed half of old men in their fifties and sixties, and half of boys who could be their teenage sons. After a short bit of planning, they row out into the bay on several launches. On their way out to the Stiletto, the necklace Vladimir received from the beggar woman in the marketplace becomes freezing cold and shatters, and time seems to stand still. He is visited by the same woman, dressed now in nobles garb, who walks beside him on the water. She tells him that he has been touched deeply, and that “She” will be able to sense him wherever he goes. She raises a hand in parting, revealing a delicate ring with a blue gem on her finger.

Upon arriving at the Stiletto, Moriel uses a lasso to yank a sailor off the rail of the ship, allowing the rest of the party to achieve the deck before the Peacekeepers notice. A pitched battle between the platoon of Peacekeepers and the party ensues. After several grievous wounds, the party emerges victorious, and Sir Robert’s men climb the deck and begin to set the ship to sail. It is quickly found that all of the supplies brought by Sir Robert and those on the ship itself have spoiled (a result of a failed spell by Banagher during the fight).

The crew of the Decimator, the largest warship in the Penshin Navy, notice the disturbance and set sail to intercept the Stiletto, signaling her to heave to and prepare to be boarded. Sir Robert sets the Stiletto on an attack course, a patently suicidal maneuver weighing the Stiletto’s eight captured guns versus the Decimator’s twenty. At the last minute, Sir Robert flings open his robes, revealing his mithril plate armor bearing the Seal of the Emperor and the Seal of the Order of Leopold upon its breast, he casts a spell and launches himself into the air, then casts a series of fireballs down upon the deck of the Decimator, exploiting a weakness in the design of its powder magazine and causing the entire vessel to detonate, leaving nothing but splinters and a burning keel.

The Stiletto lines up for its shot against the flotilla of troop transports, and Vladimir takes aim and fires the twenty rounds from the model gun in just a matter of seconds. The thought of batteries of full-sized automatic cannons seems to horrify the watching crew, none more than Corky, who flies into a rage and begins beating on Vernon and screaming. He takes Vernon and wraps his bindings around the model gun, pulls the spite pin, and launches the whole incredibly heavy mass over the rail of the ship, taking Vernon to the bottom of the bay with it. During the exchange, the warping sensation of the Tablenhelm WayGate is felt by all.

The shells detonate as expected and shower burning naphtha down on part of the flotilla. Sir Robert adds a few extra shots from the Stiletto’s guns in passing, but it becomes clear that, at most, only a few dozen of the two hundred troop transports will be destroyed by the attack. Banagher seems to become awash with power, being overwhelmed by the rush from the WayGate’s opening, and manages to rain down a shower of fire over the flotilla, setting the whole thing aflame.

The chapter ends with the Stiletto sailing off into the night, lit by the raging bonfire behind, and Sir Robert and his crew singing the Imperial anthem.