AAR: [9H] Some Like it Hot (2021-03-13 1900 GMT)

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bronzemountain
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AAR: [9H] Some Like it Hot (2021-03-13 1900 GMT)

Post by bronzemountain » Sun Mar 14, 2021 1:52 am

AAR: Some Like it Hot
GM: Dvarim
ECR: 9
Difficulty: Hard

Player Rewards:
Azurea: 58,000 LP, 1,500 SP, 5 TIPs
Lazulin: 58,000 LP, 1,500 SP, 5 TIPs
Thorkell: 58,000 LP, 1,500 SP, 5 TIPs
Zivilyn: 58,000 LP, 1,500 SP, 5 TIPs
Bloodbeat: 58,000 LP, 1,500 SP, 5 TIPs

Alternate Rewards: 50% off True Fire and 'Rare Enchanting Materials' (Magma Beast)

GM Reward: A'horangi: 39,000 LP, 1,000 SP, 3 TIPs

Downtime:
Spoiler:

Thorkell
[Craftsman] Rank 10 / 35 (+2 if metal) can make mundane items, weapons, and armor
[Efficient Forge Weapon] Rank 12 / 28 (+2 if metal) (can forge rank weapons at once)
[Rapid Forge Weapon] Rank 12 / 28 (+2 if metal) (can use extra successes to reduce downtime by 1 day each)
[Rapid Forge Armor] Rank 12 / 28 (+2 if metal) (can use extra successes to reduce downtime by 1 day each)
[Item History] Rank 4 / 24
[Research] Rank 6 / 22
[Design Enchanting Pattern] Rank 11 / 31
[Craft True Pattern] Rank 11 / 36 (+2 if metal)

Azurea
Alchemy 6 (12)
Booster Potions - 2 days for 2
Small Light Quartz - 4 days
Absorb Blow Charms - 4 days

Zivilyn
Animal Training (Talent) - Step 20 including karma (Rank 10) (can train up to 10 commands total, or improve non-combat skills by +1 per command used on it)
Research - Step 28 including karma (Rank 8). +3 to the step is available at a cost of 20 sp for access to the Great Library of Throal.
Item History - Step 20 including karma (Rank 8)
Design Enchanting Pattern - Step 21
Create Blood Charm - Step 21 (for the moment, you'll need to supply your *own* patterns)

Bloodbeat
* Alchemy 11 (rank 4) [Booster Potion, Small Light Quartz]
* Forge Armor 16 (rank 5, step 12 + karma)
* Forge Weapon 16 (rank 5, step 12 + karma)
* Item History 16 (rank 5, step 12 + karma)
* Research 17 (rank 3, step 10 + karma with library access +3 [20 SP])
Summary:
Five Adepts have found the legendary Widowforge on its secret island in the Death Sea. They have spoken with Death's Wives and defeated the Widow Scorned and her Consorts. Azurea sacrificed a beloved memento of her dear and fallen friend, Ursal. Death took the memento, and also all the memories that went along with it. Azurea has no remaining memory of Ursal, but her armor's power has been unlocked. Is this the end of the Widow Scorned? After all, her goal was immortality - did she, could she, truly die?

Notes: The Adepts worked with a Fire Mining crew out of Travar operating under the name Some Like it Hot and flying the airship Power Station.

Xzandrate
Posts:382
Joined:Tue Apr 07, 2020 8:28 pm

Re: AAR: [9H] Some Like it Hot (2021-03-13 1900 GMT)

Post by Xzandrate » Sun Mar 14, 2021 4:43 am

***The intricately covered ice blue journal contains a single blue crystal on the centre, with the simple gold lettering below it 'Lazulin' ***

Page 18

I had received a message about meeting someone to help with their family. As the note had few little details, I met at the appointed place and time. As I awaited the arrival of my requestor, I was joined by Bloodbeat, Zivilyn, and Thorkell. A short time later we were alerted by someone shouting my name, it was Azurea. She immediately ran up and began asking about my family and babbling about her own. We eventually settled her down and asked what she needed. She indicated that she was trying to find out about a legendary location to unlock the powers of her armor.

We headed to the library and began to scour over the books. After a number of hours we determined that the location lay within the Death's Sea. Not on the shores, but approximately two kilometers off-shore. We headed to Travar and with the connections of Zivilyn managed to locate a company of fire miners, Some Like it Hot, who agreed to transport us into the Death's Sea once they learned of our purpose. They even threw in an additional discount if we truly could locate a stable location within the lava flows to operate from and it was this legendary location.

The fields of lava were a bit mezmerizing. Light shone from all over the place, interfering with itself and casting strange shadows and darkness. This was distinctly different than the Sun that I followed. We ended up finding a large outcropping close to the location we had triangulated. With some sounding tools, the crew managed to confirm it was a solid land mass, and not one of the fool's islands common to the sea. We climbed down and began to look around.

As we approached a large chasm with lava flowing underneath, there were a pair of espagara on the far side that we kept careful eye upon. Someone exclaimed about a sword in the lava just before it reared up in front of us. The battle was fierce and it hit us hard, damaging Thorkell's armor extensively. We took care of the beast with a coordinated effort and moved across the chasm to a bit safer terrain. We feasted and took time for Thorkell and Bloodbeat to repair his armor. Strangely the hide came out of the process singed black, with the faint design of a skull upon it.

We continued on and eventually encountered some fallen Namegivers, burned to a crisp. The trail of corpses brought us to a stone bridge over the lava. Upon the bridge were three burning forms that arose to greet us as we approached. Azurea explained the purpose of our visit and negotiated passage. Though she seemed very agitated the entire time. The spirits informed us a fourth was inside attempting to break the natural laws and that she would likely stop us.

We entered the forge chamber prepared for a combat. It didn't take long to establish that a combat was a forgone conclusion. Azurea matter of factly indicated that she needed the forge and would not leave, the woman at the centre advised that was not possible and seemed to imply her three underlings would see to that.

The fight was rather brutal, but we were finely honed to the task, with the lead widow in the center making the mistake of ignoring Azurea and attempting to deceive the rest of us. The handful of shadowy daggers assure she won't make that mistake again.

We cleaned up the followers, who had a surprising number of tricks to hide behind, and Azurea proceeded to prepare a wrapped weapon from her pack and place it within the Widow's Forge. Afterwards she had no recollection of that occurring, or who the axe belonged to. Zivilyn was later able to inform us that the axe belonged to a fallen comrade of Azurea's.

While the rest of the group was engrossed by the supernatural way that the forge and anvil seemed to work and bring forth spirits, I found it quite unsettling. This was the Death's Sea, and I now truly believe that Death is trapped beneath it, and this forge is the mystical cork that bottles him in. I had no desire to toy with it.

We returned to the fire mining crew and explained what we had discovered, I advised that they could use this as a stable outpost, but they were best not to cross the chasm. We paid for our passage with the magical loot retrieved from the fallen we discovered, and with some time to have people in the party Item History the items, we learned that the fallen were more follower of the Widow. It seems they were but another fanatical cult, luckily for us they had been dealt with.

Our party was truly forged in the fires of Death itself, and again we proved resilient and prepared for challenges before us. We were prepared for victory and achieved it entirely.


***A great Iced Claw adorns the bottom of the page ***
Image

Sharkforce
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Re: AAR: [9H] Some Like it Hot (2021-03-13 1900 GMT)

Post by Sharkforce » Mon Mar 15, 2021 12:08 am

From the Journal of Zivilyn, Windling Magician: Some Like It Hot

Note: The session started over an hour late due to complications, and I had to leave at the climactic battle... so if my version of events at the end of the adventure don't match with others, go with their version.

Azurea always seems to have the most *interesting* problems.

I was actually in Throal at Vlolkir's request, something about an ancestor's spirit I think, but he was nowhere to be found and had left no word of where he might be or what he might be up to that was making him late. With no real starting point, we couldn't really do much about it, and in any event I wasn't excessively worried for an Adept of his strength. I was about to head home, when to my surprise Azurea showed up out of nowhere (she does that a lot) and asked for some help with a trip to Death's Sea. Well, I suppose I am sort of a resident expert on that (in the sense that having been there at all, I have more hands-on experience than all except 4 other Adepts of my acquaintance), and it is an interesting enough place, so I agreed to lend a hand.

In addition to Azurea and myself (Howler and Haze stayed home for this one, as the plan mostly called for airship travel and Haze had no suitable clothing for Air Armour), we had Lazulin, Thorkell, and Bloodbeat. Azurea had a suit of Thread Armour that required her to go to the Widowforge in Death's Sea and sacrifice something of great value to her. Now, normally I'd say that was complete nonsense, since I've never heard of anyone actually going to the Widowforge (and lots of people have tried), but when you have a thread item that item history has clearly indicated is from the Widowforge, well, I guess it must be real.

After some relaxing time digging through the Library (I wonder how the others enjoyed being able to Speed Read) we narrowed down our search to a relatively small area in Death's Sea, and headed for Travar to find a fire mining crew that might be willing to take us there. I knew the right area to look, and Azurea found a crew willing to do it as long as they were paid an absolutely obscene amount. Thorkell brought them down a little, and they went a little lower even if we could actually find a safe place for them to operate from in the middle of Death's Sea (safe being relative; they meant "real solid ground", not "a place that isn't covered in fire, lava, intense burning heat, and all kinds of creatures that are literally on fire").

To my surprise, we agreed. I wasn't so sure about the wisdom of that, but I guess Azurea had a plan or something. Or we lucked out. One of those two. Anyways, it took a couple days of searching (thankfully I had my compass to help with navigation), but we did indeed find the promised solid ground, which was nice since it meant we were less deep in debt. It was an interesting but not terribly pleasant place. You might think you would eventually get used to miserable oppressive heat, but you don't really. Thankfully I have all the right spells to help out, but it's still hot even with Air Armour and Resist Fire running.

I was able to get pieces of a Broccha and the local Death's Sea Espagras (which mostly avoided us), but the Widowforge was not in the part of the island we landed on. In crossing the island, we came across a gorge filled with magma. Also, a magma beast. It tore up Lazulin and Thorkell pretty bad, but I thankfully was able to keep my distance, and protect my precious books from its fiery aura. I think I shall keep them double-wrapped in something extra protective from now on, that was too close. It ruined Thorkell's armour, and boy if you ever want to see an agry Troll you can damage a Weaponsmith's armour and see how that turns out for you. The magma beast certainly didn't like what it got.

There was a sword of ancient design but recent use stuck in its side, which given it wasn't melted must have been magical (a quick glance in the astral confirmed as much, though I wasn't able to get much more than that). As we made our way to somplace that was (as far as we can tell) slightly less dangerous, we came across a few Namegiver corpses still smoking... or, more like one corpse and two mostly-incinerated heaps that had previously been corpses. They had a number of thread items as well, which was certainly a relief; I had been expecting this trip to cost us a lot of money, but that would certainly help. We set up camp, had a Heated Hero's Feast, and Thorkell and Bloodbeat worked on repairing his armour, which... was changed in the process. Something about the Island favoured their forging, but also turned his hide armour black as coal but for some faint markings like a skull on it. I *may* have spent a lot of time on the way back studying it with my Astral Sense, but we had some more exploration to do in the meanwhile.

There was basically a trail of Namegiver corpses as we went. I'm not certain where they came from; we had seen no other airships in the area, and I can't imagine they walked. I'm even less certain how they planned to make it back, but maybe they didn't. Anyways, we came to the other side of the island, which had a massive stone pier stretching out into Death's Sea. I can only assume it is magically concealed from above, because I can't imagine any other way for it to have remained unfound for this long. Frankly, it may even be concealed to normal view from most people, for that matter; perhaps we only found it because we had Azurea's armour with us.

Anyways, there were three fiery Ally Spirits on the pier, who seemed pretty annoyed that even more people had shown up. I guess they thought we were going to attack, but instead we had a nice chat and it seems they were Death's wives. One of them introduced herself as Ehlona, and had apparently made Azurea's armour. We agreed to bash some skulls (apparently the previous group we had been noticing the corpses of was doing something very bad of a vague and unspecified nature), they agreed to let us past and gave us some unusual tricks as assistance (I have never seen a fiery Unicorn Spirit before, but that was certainly interesting), and also I think you marry Death by fully weaving the armour. So, Azurea is maybe Death's Fourth Wife (or More-th Wife, for all I know) now. That will be interesting. Maybe a century from now I'll come back and visit, see if she's there on that pier. I'm not sure she'd like it much, she doesn't seem terribly fond of spirits.

So anyways, we walked up, prepared a little kicked in the door (figuratively; there was no door) and... negotiated? Azurea sure has some odd ideas about how to respond to people attempting to violate the laws of nature and screwing around with a powerful artifact linked to Death and his wives in a mythical location, after making a pact with incredibly powerful spirits. Anyways, after some very civil discussion we reached an agreement that we had no choice but to try and kill each other to death, and proceeded to go straight to it. I got paired off against an Archer, which was not the most enjoyable experience I've ever had. I mostly held him to a standstill, and I figure he probably liked my Fiery Unicorn Spirit friends about as much as I liked his arrows. In the end I think he jumped into a horrible fiery death... I'm a little unclear on that part, as I went unconscious first. Those arrows are no joke.

Anyways, the rest of the group woke me up and after a bit of time recovering, Bloodbeat and I had the idea to study the Widowforge while we were there. I don't have the words to describe it. I don't think I have the words to describe not having the words to describe it. I've never seen anything like it, not even in my master's journals (and boy, has he seen some stuff). I think if I studied it for long enough, I might understand it, but nobody would be able to understand *me* any more. It's given me a lot to think about, and I'm inclined to say that I don't think anyone unprepared should look at it, so quite frankly... if you aren't strong enough to go there and look at it yourself, I'm not convinced you're ready for me to try and put it in journal form (assuming I figure out how in the first place; I don't regret having spent as much time learning to weave beautiful and functional baskets as I have, but I imagine it would be much easier to explain this if I had, for example, spent more time on methods better suited to communicating this kind of information. Maybe I'll visit my master again and ask him what he thinks (apart from "GO AWAY"). It was magnificent and beautiful and utterly confounding and revelatory, and my head hurts just thinking about the headache I got... but it was so worth it.

In any case, the crazy lady who had led the previous group (I gather she used to be or almost was one of Death's Wives as well) was stopped, I'm not sure how permanently, and whatever it was she was trying to do was prevented from happening (again, Ehlona was super vague about *exactly* what was going on, which I presume she had her reasons for). Azurea sacrificed an axe that belonged to a previous companion, and may or may not have married death in the process (I couldn't see anything conclusive in her pattern, but it isn't as if I have a manual on "how to identify markings in someone's pattern that show they're Death's Wife", now, is it? Well, Ehlona certainly seemed to think she was, at any rate)
Last edited by Sharkforce on Wed Mar 17, 2021 7:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.

verse86
Posts:269
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Re: AAR: [9H] Some Like it Hot (2021-03-13 1900 GMT)

Post by verse86 » Tue Mar 16, 2021 3:22 am

Thorkell Journal:
Azurea needed to perform a deed for her armor and requested my assistance. She needed to go to a location called the Widow's Forge which intrigued me. The only thing that gave me pause was that the Widow's Forge was in the Death's Sea. After more research we believe we had an approximate location for the Forge.

We set out for Travar where we hoped to find some fire miners who would be amenable to taking us to the Widow's Forge. We eventually found a crew called Some Like It Hot with their ship The Power Station. They seemed excited to possibly find a legendary location and took us up on our offer. After three days of searching we found a solid island they believed might be what we were looking for.

We dropped down and set out. We approached a chasm with some espagra on the other side. Having dealt with these creatures in Kampung Gajah, I warned the party of the dangers these creatures posed. Funny enough the warnings were moot since the espagra fled as soon as a magma beast burst from the lava in the chasm and attacked Lazulin. The monster's extreme heat was painful to even stand near. I can't express how thankful I am for Zivilyn's magics that protected me from the elements. I moved to protect him from further attacks. Fortunately my move worked. Unfortunately my move worked. The creature tore into my hide armor destroying it. There are few things that can enrage me (besides magics), but the heat around me could not compared to the seething rage I felt in that moment. Before my thoughts could even catch up I had dug into the creature with both blades felling the monster.

My blades were not the only ones sunk into the monster. Another blade was still stuck in the creature. I reached out with Inhibitor and removed the sword. The blade seemed to be made of primitive steel that I believe was of a pre-scourge Ustrecht origin. Its materials were not enough to protect it from this creature which makes me believe it is a thread item. I must research it further. *notes on Ustrecht designs follow*

The party was nice enough to give me four hours to repair my hide armor with Bloodbeat's help. Something strange happened in the process. It seems that the magics of the land altered my armor. The tiger print faded to all black with even darker skull like patterns spread evenly throughout. I definitely did not intend this and Bloodbeat assured me her nethermantic magics had birthing to do with it which means the magics of the Death's Sea must have altered my armor in some way. I must look into this further. Either way, this is definitely a sign that I need to finish forging my Crystalline Depths. *a drawing of the hide armor follows*

We found a pathway down that led us to a bridge. The design was incomprehensible. It seemed to incorporate designs that only came into fashion in the last two years, but was obviously much older. I estimated its age to be at least 5000 years old. As we approached the bridge three spirits called out to us. All three spoke to Azurea about her being one of them and what she was doing there. They seemed quite enamored with her. One also seemed interested in my recently repaired hide armor. The spirits granted Azurea access, but warned another was in already in the forge and that she was hostile. The spirits granted us boons for the coming battle. My blades were granted a lasting fire to strike my enemies with.

We made our way in knowing a battle was more than likely. Once we entered we found a woman performing some ritual over the forge while her three allies stood guard. She was not inclined to stop her ritual and it seemed her intent was to somehow break the forge. Azurea was unwilling to let this happen and a battle ensued.

Azurea dealt with the woman who seemed to be some kind of illusionist. I for my part had my hands full with a warrior woman who could cast nethermantic spells. Fortunately with Bloodbeat's help I was able to subdue her. We eventually prevailed and the enemies were unable to accept defeat and either killed themselves or turned into some black sludge.

Azurea stepped forward to the forge and pulled an axe from her bag. I do not know who this axe belonged to, but it seemed important to her. The forge burned so strongly that not even the metal remained. After performing the deed, her armor started emitting smoke which she says meant it worked. We were all more curious about this forge that seemed to have spirits inside it. Unfortunately I was unable to grasp anything about its true nature. Bloodbeat seemed to stare deeply into it which caused her a tremendous headache. We decided our curiosity was not worth the danger.

The spirits came to Azurea and seemed quite amorous with her. Before they left I asked if I could come back here and use the forge. They told me to do so would require a great sacrifice. Unsure of what I could offer, they suggested my sight, a hand, or the ability to dream. I decided the cost was probably not worth the reward. My curiosity sated, I decided that I would use my own abilities to craft great items and not take shortcuts by using others' power. With a final farewell the spirits left. We returned to The Power Station and made our way back to Travar. I was able to get a discount on some true fire from Some Like It Hot. I believe I will use it to create my own forge, one to rival the Widow's Forge. *drawings of the Widow's Forge and notes on possible designs for his own forge take up the next few pages*
Last edited by verse86 on Wed Mar 17, 2021 2:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Anoush
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Re: AAR: [9H] Some Like it Hot (2021-03-13 1900 GMT)

Post by Anoush » Wed Mar 17, 2021 9:04 am

Bloodbeat’s Journal:

Azurea was looking for people to accompany her to Death’s Sea. She was vague about the reason, but finally let on that her armor, Named Death’s Warm Embrace, needed a deed to be done and that it had to be done in Death’s Sea. More specifically, Azurea had to sacrifice something of value to her at the Widow Forge. That piqued my curiosity.

The Widow Forge was a mythical place in Death’s Sea where Death’s wives lived. The wives revered Death. They were significant figures in some of the cults that believed that Death was the thirteenth Passion, the Passion of Mercy. Death’s third wife, Ehlona, had crafted Azurea’s armor.

In spite of the apocryphal nature of all this, Azurea had done a lot of research and found the location of the Widow Forge [hex 26,33]. Death’s Sea was a sea of molten lava, constantly boiling. But there were cool patches in it, which formed ephemeral islands that lasted an hour, a day, a week, and then disappeared into the lava.

So off we went: Azurea (troll shadow and purifier), Lazulin (troll raider and sun herald), Thorkell (weaponmaster, warrior and questor of Upandal), Zivilyn (windling multi-disciplined magus), and me.

We booked passage on an airship to Travar. Once there, we began looking for transport into Death’s Sea. We had two general choices. First, fire miners based in Travar, or second, Scavian river sailors who used stone barges.

Zivilyn had contacts with the former, so we took that option, and began asking around the markets. We found a group of fire miners quickly enough, with the company Name: Some Like It Hot. They mined True Fire aboard airships, outfitted to survive the intense heat. At first they were reluctant to take some tourists into Death’s Sea. But once we mentioned that we had the location of the Widow Forge they were ready to go. They even gave us a break on the price since actually going to the Widow Forge would give them bragging rights.

We collected fire-resistant gear, but declined the popular blood ink tattoos. Then we boarded the airship, Named The Power Station. Watching the molten lava beneath it was mesmerizing. At night, it didn’t look like lava, but rather more as a sea of light, slowly surging back and forth. We saw fire eagles soaring through the sky, and ember scaled fish leaping up out of the lava, then back down.

After two days of searching, spiraling and circling, we found the Widow Forge. It was a small island, an actual island made of burned, craggy rock. Most of the group climbed down carefully. I begged Zivilyn for Metal Wings, and he obliged. The thought of falling into molten lava was a fate too terrible to contemplate.

The island was split roughly in two, the two halves separated by a canyon of magma. We saw immense fish leaping through the magma, 2 yards long at least. And amazingly, we saw a sword floating in the magma, dipping in and out of the flow. At one point, the canyon narrowed enough that we could leap over it. On the other side of the canyon, we saw a few espagra sunning on the rocks, but they left us alone. An ancient stone bridge connected the island to another, much smaller islet nearby. The air was acrid and sulfurous; breathing hurt. Ziv had put Air Armor and Resist Fire on everyone. Without those spells, we would’ve really been hurting.

As we looking around us, we noticed eyes in the magma, watching us! Then suddenly, the eyes, and a large body of magma, leaped out of the canyon and attacked! And the beast had the floating sword sticking out of its back the whole time. All the espagra fluttered away in terror. It was a tough and hot battle. The beast’s touch even destroyed Thorkell’s armor. Later, we identified the creature as a Magma Beast.

We decided to spend a few hours resting and repairing Thorkell’s armor. He set up a temporary forge — it was certainly hot enough — and between the two of us we fixed it in about four hours. That gave us all time to recovery somewhat from the battle, too.

The sword was pre-Scourge in style and material. A truly ancient sword of the style favored in old Ustrect, a troll sword made from an ancient steel alloy, not the alloy in modern use. The leather grip had indentations in it, as if it had been wielded recently, very recently.

As we forged Thorkell’s armor, Azurea scouted the island and found three dead, smoldering bodies: a dwarf, a troll and an elf. They had all been killed by fire. There was also a dead espagra, killed with bladed weapons and partially eaten by the local wildlife. Each of the Name-giver bodies bore identifying tokens and Thread Items, so she gathered these as well.

Once our rest was done, we began crossing the bridge, which spanned the gap, but only about 2 yards above the lava. Below we saw swimming salamanders having a great day. Then we saw more dead Name-giver bodies on the bridge: a windling, an obsidiman and a dwarf, plus three more that we thought were female, but couldn’t make out the details at a distance.

As we approached, the three indistinct bodies stood up and began talking to Azurea, addressing her directly. These were Death’s Wives, the Fire Widows. I could tell that they were powerful ally spirits. One of the wives inspected Azurea’s armor closely, running her fingers along the edges and patterns, circling around Azurea as she did so. She finally said, “I haven’t seen this armor for a very long time.” Ah ha! We surmised that this must have been Ehlona, Death’s third wife.

Azurea asked for passage across the bridge and Ehlona demanded that Azurea swear that she would sacrifice something of value. Since that’s what Azurea came there to do, she agreed readily. Then one of the wives said something surprising, “You are not the first to come here today.” Apparently, another group — the dead Name-givers — had come there that same day as well, but were unwilling to make the promise. So the wives killed them.

Finally, one of the wives gave us a warning, “There is a fourth, like us, but not like us. The Widow Scorned. She broke trust, reneged on her arrangement with Death, and now invades this place to do what should not be done.” We then knew that we’d face a Fire Widow at the Forge itself. Azurea asked for advice on how to defeat her. In response, the wives offered us a blessing, because we had not asked for one, just for advice. Magic fire was added to my comrades’ weapons and Ziv and my spells were boosted.

We continued across the bridge and quickly found the actual forge. In it was a Widow, appearing much like the other three, along with three consorts, two male and one female. Ziv and one of the consorts paired off, exchanging attacks. Thorkell and Lazulin faced off with the other two consorts, while Azurea went after the Widow. I helped Thorkell by giving that consort a lot of Pain and wounds. Then a strange thing happened: Azurea and the Widow just switched places, instantly. They kept attacking each other, but in the reverse positions. Then we all saw the Widow kill Azurea with a couple of well-placed blows. I couldn’t believe my eyes! So, I studied both of them with Astral Sight and realized with great relief that the Widow was dead, not Azurea. Somehow, the Widow must’ve used illusionist magic to change appearances with Azurea. About that time, Thorkell and Lazulin finished off their consorts, while the one fighting Zivilyn exclaimed, “There’s no reason to live,” and leaped off the edge into the molten lava of Death’s Sea. Quickly, the bodies of the Widow and Azurea returned to their normal appearances, and the bodies of the other two consorts dissolved.

Now Azurea studied the forge itself, noticing the black iron anvil and the forge itself, fired with heat from Death’s Sea. As we watched, we saw eyes appear in the anvil and then the imprints of hands. I could tell that there were many spirits bound inside the anvil. What a remarkable creation!

Azurea removed an axe from her pack, offered a prayer of gratitude to it, and reverently put it in the forge. The wooden handle was destroyed in an instant, while the metal head took longer. But it was gone in moments all told. Afterward, I asked Azurea why the axe meant so much to her, but all she did was look at me blankly, “What axe?” Asking Thorkell the question later on, he told me that the axe had belonged a now-dead long-time companion and trusted friend of Azurea’s, Named Ursal.

I tried to study the anvil in the short time that we had left in the Widow Forge, but all I could tell was that it was made of no known metal and that some sort of spiritual geometry and nethermantic magic had joined to form the forge in some vastly incomprehensible fashion, and suddenly I had a splitting headache. For a long time afterwards, even the thought of trying to unravel the anvil’s mysteries made me cringe.

We returned across the bridge and Thorkell asked the Wives if he could return to the Forge. They agreed, but only if he sacrificed something important to him as payment. He had to think about that offer long and hard.

Ehlona was very pleased with Azurea, and then claimed her as a Sister, implying that when Azurea died she would come to the Widow Forge to be one of Death’s wives. Azurea shivered at the thought, but it seemed appealing and appropriate to me. All three Wives kissed Azurea on the cheek, and then disappeared. The forge and the bridge were littered with seemingly powerful Thread Items, but I’m not sure that any of us even picked one up.

We returned to the larger island, and shortly the airship, The Power Station, returned to retrieve us. The crew was eager to hear our stories, and no doubt retell them in the taverns of Travar.

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