Session 15

Session Summary

Mordecai, despite his anger with Chenris, decides to focus on their immediate mission and the group's safety. After ensuring Kal Korrigan is taken to the Adventurers Guild for rest, the party splits up: Chenris heads to the library for research, while Mordecai, Drache, and Aidan visit a local inn. At the inn, Mordecai performs to gather information, but an elderly patron, Grandmaster Ebis, reveals crucial historical insights, directing them to the Mage's Guild for further knowledge. Meanwhile, Chenris discovers key political and historical details at the library. As the party reconvenes, a sudden magical disturbance reveals Aidan caught in a dangerous distortion, suspected to be the work of Chronovorus. The group quickly intervenes, freeing Aidan and attempting to stabilize the situation, but tensions escalate when Chenris destroys a crystal, causing significant chaos.

Back at the Adventurers Guild, Mordecai confronts Chenris about his obsessive pursuit of knowledge and disregard for the well-being of others, revealing his traumatic past involving uncontrolled magic that led to his family's death. In response, Chenris shares his own tragic backstory, where the death of his mentor at Strixhaven set him on a relentless quest to uncover all magical secrets. Despite their differing views and methods, the two find a temporary understanding, though underlying tensions remain unresolved as they brace for the next challenge in their journey.

Full Session Notes

Although Mordecai Reverence is extremely angry with Chenris Tallfellow ‡ he eventually calms down when he realises that Kal The Korrigan † is fine and just needs some rest. They decide to drop Korrigan off at Adventurers Guild so he can rest up and join The Party later if he is feeling up to it, Drache ends up being the one to carry him back on his shoulder. On their way back The Party discuss their options. Chenris points out that they cant go barter with the Empress without knowing who they're talking to, or what they would bargain with. They decide to spilt up with Chenris going to the library and Mordecai, Drache and Aiden Knight going to a local pub. They agree to meet up at 5pm.

On their way to the Inn, the group start to talk. Mordecai is annoyed that Chenris and Korrigan have been keeping secrets from the rest of The Party, so he wants to learn as much as possible to outsmart Chenris at their game. Plus, it would prove to Chenris that book smarts isn't the be-all and end-all to research and smarts. The group agrees. Once they get to the Wooden Hearth Inn, Drache requests that the inn turn off their juke box to allow Mordecai to perform (if he didn't, Mordecai would've started pushing buttons to find out.) The bar gladly lets them as they love live performances, especially from "other folk".

Ignoring this, Mordecai starts to perform a self-written ballad about The War for the OFC's Freedom to wet their appetite. People seem to enjoy it and even chuck some coins at him. While this is happening, drache sits at the bar (which is unusual for this establishment), asks for a class of wine, and watches the crowd. After Mordecai finishes his first Ballad, he starts another about Aetherion; however, he purposely tries to get a lot of information wrong to see if anyone reacts. Most patrons are sitting there, enjoying the music -apart from one, an older man who starts disagreeing with many things Mordecai purposely gets wrong. Drache approaches him and they begin to chat about the true history of Aetherion. Drache learns a lot and thanks him for his time. The person says, "No, thank you. It's been wonderful to talk about such things. If you wish to talk some more, just ask for Ebis Daro at the Mage's Guild" and then walks off.

The group reconvenes and returns to their meeting spot since it's late. Drache passes all his information on to Mordecai. When they walk back, they don't notice that Aidan is not with them.

Chenris' POV

(x::When Chenris enters The Great Library, he is overwhelmed with childlike wonder. So much so that his Eldarin blood takes over and starts to embody the aspect of spring - His happy emotion. He soon finds all the books he is looking for. He learns the following information

At this point, Korrigan has woken up and made his way down to the Library to find chenris deeply immersed in books. Korrigan takes this time to talk about what they kept secret from the rest of The Party. Korrigan says that there's no way we can go through with the plan, and chenris agrees (he is lying, and Korrigan knows it). They both uneasily look at each other and notice that they need to meet up with everyone else soon.

As the two of them leave, Chenris asks a door clerk about the Enel Cubus †. The person says they unfortunately wouldn't know about Ebis Daro in the Mage's Guild on the floor above them, but they might know more than them. Chenris thanks them for the information and laments that he doesn't have the time to ask further.

When the two groups meet, Chenris and Korrigan notice immediately that Aidan is not with them and ask about his whereabouts. At that very moment, weird magical energy spikes and space-time distortions break all over Ishnmel, with the biggest one being over The Tower of Ishnmel. In the distance, The Party can see Aidan flying up with distortions all around him.

Out of desperation, Korrigan returns to The Tower of Ishnmel to protect. Chenris deduces that this is the work of Chronovorus and shouts out his name to taunt it. He doesn't reply. However, chenris realises that these distortions are what Chronovorus uses to sap the lifespans out of people. And managed to pull Korrigan out before he loses too much of his lifespan(?). The rest of The Party decide to catch up with Aidan and try to help him. Aidan's body currently has a large black smile across his face. Chenris also approaches and fires off a Chill Touch to break the concentration of whatever controls him - it doesn't work. Finally, Mordecai can free Aidan by casting Dispel Magic. With him free, they rush back to the tower to stop that distortion from destroying it. Aidan puts a stop to it and collapses from exhaustion.

The Party decided to commune with Terathra to access the damage. Korrigan, Drache, and Mordecai all team up to lessen the burden of talking to him. During their conversation with him, it becomes clear that something is wrong because the tower is affecting Terathra in strange ways. Korrigan points out that this is one of The Ancient Pillars, so it may function differently. Because Korrigan is needed to keep the line of communication open with Terathra, Chenris is the only one able to teleport up to the top and investigate. After some deliberation, Mordecai uncomfortably sent Chenris off to investigate.

Chenris instantly disappears to the top of the tower to find his research paid off and everything is as he expected it to be, bar one thing. In the chamber with the crystal were Magic Demons. After getting over his initial shock, Chenris greets them with, "Oh, hello there. I believe we have a mutual acquaintance, one Agolin Winterbor."

They replied in the affirmative and mentioned that playing with him was fun. Chenris says he'll be right back and returns to The Party and tells them what he saw up there before saying, "Terribly sorry, but there are few things i wish to investigate. Good day" and before Mordecai could even protest, Chenris uses Misty Step to return to the room. Panicking, Mordecai breaks his connection with Terathra and tries to find a way up quickly to the room above with the crystal. At this very moment, Ebis Daro walks into the room and summons a slowly moving elevator to take Mordecai up before flying ahead.

Ebis Daro flies up to find Chenris starting to take apart the Crystal with his magic. Ebis Daro and the Magic Demons join to help him destroy it. Midway through this process, Mordecai finally reaches them and attempts to stop Chenris, but is completely ignored. Mordecai then tries to physically restrain him, but is stopped by Ebis, who is sent to the floor with a spell. Chenris is now very close to destroying the crystal, and Mordecai is desperate to at least get his attention, let alone stop him, and attempts to stab his leg. He misses, but chenris turns to see what is happening. Through tiers, Mordecai tries to tell chenris to stop. He doesn't know what he's doing - anything to stop him from going any further. Chenris gets in his face and goes, "It is just Scientific Enquiry, my boy", and returns to his work.

Mordecai, about to try and stab him again, is confronted by Ebis Daro, who pulls him aside and transforms him into a woman with burn marks and says, "Hey, hey, it's ok, I forgive you for what you did" Mordecai, now confused and crying, starts to scream. Chenris ignores or maybe does not even realise he is there anymore. Chenris destroys the Crystal.

The moment the crystal was broken, Chenris absorbed the energy. Knowing he could not contain this ridiculous amount of energy, he looked to direct it somewhere. At this moment, time seemed to stop, and Ebis Daro stood before him and said he would help Chenris direct all this power. After some consideration, Chenris decided to direct it to Terathra. Time flowed freely again, and the tower broke apart and fell over.

Ebis Daro appears before Mordecai again and says, "Thank you, you've done an amazing job for Ignatius" before disappearing. Mordecai, now angry, storms to the window, jumps out, and climbs down, flipping off Chenris in the process. Chenris doesn't notice and jumps out he window and Misty Step safely to the ground.

Drache manages to escape with a weak Korrigan and an unconscious Aidan on his shoulders, and The Party meet up outside the Library in front of a collapsed tower. Korrigan wonders how they will make a trade deal now that they destroyed the tower and says there's no point in doing anything now with everyone being so tired, and people should sleep on it.

Returning to the Adventurers Guild, The Party go to their rooms, including the one that Mordecai and Chenris share. Chenris sits on a bed and starts writing up his findings. Mordecai asks chenris if he even saw him suffering behind him in the tower, and chenris says not until he turned to face Mordecai. Mordecai, nearly screaming at this point, talks about Ebis Daro transformed into someone very special to them and guilted him and Chenris for not helping him when he needed it most. Chenris said he was so focused on learning that he was oblivious to everything else.

Mordecai's Backtory

Mordecai takes a deep breath and says the following:

Chenris and Mordecai became spell casters in very different ways. Chenris learnt through studying and researching magic, whereas Mordecai was born with it. Because of this, Mordecai could not control his powers until he had practised a lot. But before that, he was a child with no control, and when he was first tapped into his magic, he accidentally cast a fireball in his family home - a very wooden house. Mordecai could escape the fire without much harm, but his family and Claribelle Reverence † weren't so lucky. Without a family or a roof over their head, Mordecai wandered the lands of Uvam Dynasty before meeting Arwen Gryffon at the Nightshade's Crown. Over time, he learn to control his powers but hid them as best he could so he couldn't hurt anyone again.

Feeling a bit shaky, Mordecai says, "Come on, Information for Information. Why are you so obsessed with learning that you wouldn't even notice his friends crying for his help?"

Chenris' Backstory

Chenris, slightly ticked off from being unable to write up his notes, starts to explain his past. Chenris says, as everyone knows, he went to Strixhaven as a child. In his Magic Theory class, he met the late Professor Varitan Leotoris †, who became almost a father figure to Chenris - especially since his relationship with his father was…strained. Chenris and Leotoris would spend a lot of time together researching theories after class and significantly increased the world's understanding of magic theory.

After some time like this, Professor Varitan Leotoris † was going on a field trip to a local dungeon that Strixhaven had wrapped nearby. Having never really been out of the confines of the city, Chenris begged to go on the trip. Leotoris finally relented and snuck his name on the list. Unfortunately, because Chenris was inexperienced with dungeons, he accidentally triggered a trap, but at least in the second, Leotoris jumped in, saved him, and died in his place. With his dying breath, he passed him Leotoris' Last Problem and said, "Learn all the secrets of this world and solve this problem, if it's the last thing you do."

However, the memory was so traumatic for Chenris that he completely forgot the details of his professor's death. For ages, he walked around with a hole in his memory until he was contacted by Aeloria to make a deal. He was allowed to learn anything he liked and chose to learn about the gap in his knowledge. Remembering everything, Chenris was reinvigorated to learn all he could.

Directly after Leotoris's death, the field trip was wrapped up early, and by the time Chenris got back onto school grounds, Leotoris's classroom and belongings had already been scrubbed clean. The only thing left of his beloved professor was the note he gave Chenris.

Satisfied with this information, Mordecai went to sleep.