The Ageless Promise

The Ulfar accept Serelis’s offer and begin investigating from the first victim of the booklets, Armand Axley, owner of Axley Import Export. On the way Astrid buys a dose of black balm, a drug sold in Vyre that is said to bring prophetic visions. Armand seems frightened and desperate, but our heroes manage to convince him that they are in the same boat. He names a rival firm, Cross and Wheel, which apparently used unfair competition against his company in the past. They also manage to convince him to leave Vyre and try to rebuild his business by moving to Kintargo. Having gained another ally, they decide to follow the distribution chain of the booklets back to its source, reaching a deconsecrated temple of Aroden on Heretic’s Row. There they are ambushed by some thugs, during which Astrid receives another lesson, which she passes with her teacher’s praise. The fight seems hard, but thanks to the help of Serelis, in disguise, they manage to kill all the enemies, after questioning one of them, who names a certain Jason. Serelis makes the bodies disappear with a portable hole. Our heroes then move on to the headquarters of Cross and Wheel, infiltrating the building. On the floor below they find several mutilated people on makeshift beds, being dosed with a special mixture of black balm; between sighs of agony and ecstasy, words of prophecy can be made out from their mouths. In that room they also find two “attendants”, mutilated and tortured humans with torture instruments implanted in their hands. When the fight breaks out another figure reveals itself: what was once an elf now turns out to be a servant of Zon-Kuthon, the god of pain. The fight is extremely hard, and Freya is knocked unconscious more than once, but Astrid manifests new powers: spectral wings that remind Sigurd of the valkyries of legend.

The fight drags on for a long time, with the enemy seemingly unafraid of the wounds dealt by the children of the North, but in the end our heroes emerge victorious. Among other things they come into possession of a diary wrapped in some kind of magic, as well as the elf’s weapon: a magic spiked chain. They call Serelis back, and she advises them to clean themselves up and meet her later.

They meet again a few hours later in an alley of the harbour district. Serelis hands over a small reward in gold for their help, as well as friendship bracelets. She also asks whether the ship taking them to Kintargo has room for one more. After talking with the captain, the Ulfar sail with Serelis for Kintargo. The voyage is short, just a couple of hours, during which Serelis drops her mask and reveals her true identity. She is Samira, a fetchling, who says she is on the trail of a missing friend; she offers to guide them in Kintargo, at least as far as the inn, before going her own way. Then comes a last party on the Blackie, during which Sigurd dances with Sera Tae and where they also receive the song “The Horn of the River (Glimmerhold)”. Along the way the Ulfar see that the city of Kintargo is the exact opposite of Vyre: elegant, clean and graceful. They notice that many of the city’s squares are adorned with marble statues of a beautiful woman, whose plaques bear her name, “Lady Fiammetta Steiner”; most of these statues, however, are defaced by signs hung around her neck reading “Murderer”, or splattered with paint.

The session ends with the PCs taking rooms with Samira at the Longroad Coffee House.

NPCs

Serelis, Armand Axley, Orryn the Confessor, Vanessa Macow