The Vengeful Notes 2026-07-11

Summary

Castle Malthrek and Eastonton

• The party used a detection vial containing a living parasite preserved with Death Ward to screen Castle Malthrek’s personnel for other parasite hosts.
• Emily and her allies began moving roughly ninety captured Reformists to Eastonton in guarded, sedated teleportation-circle batches.
  • Henson Eastonton and nineteen prisoners were confirmed in one successful transfer.
  • Miya and Lord Boyle escorted a later batch, while Henson and Jessica coordinated arrivals in Eastonton.
• Duke Ellington Malthrek’s parasite was removed at the Travertines.
  • Kate Helsinki protected him with Death Ward while Emily used the yellow Orb of Absorption; the weakened parasite left through his ear and was secured in a flask.
  • Emily followed with Greater Restoration. Ellington briefly recognized his family before falling unconscious, and Antoinette received an Encode Thoughts rune to help preserve and manage his memories.

Restoring Malthrek

• Emily has begun fortifying Castle Malthrek.
  • She has not yet cast guards and wards over the main interior.
  • A smaller, inactive teleportation circle was found in the cistern-side storage space. Emily left it intact and protected it with an alerting glyph of warding.
  • At the training grounds, she created a new concealed circle and prepared an Orb of Enhancement to renew it.
  • Senera may have inherited laws for such circles from Kalassarian tradition, but any codified rules have largely been forgotten or ignored after centuries without magic. Most surviving large circles, including Eastonton’s, remain within Kalassarian ruins.
  • A circle’s practical capacity depends on its size and how many travellers can fit within it. Larger Kalassarian circles increased the number transported at once.
  • Orbs of Enhancement slowly recharge from ambient raw magical energy. A Wild Magic sorcerer’s interaction with that energy can accelerate the process.
• Mark has manifested Hunter’s Mark, confirming to Emily that his unusual hunting and tracking instincts are ranger magic. His Glass Eye of True Seeing has also begun revealing hidden people and magical auras.

Thrantorbury, the Rannek Marches, and Wider Deployments

• The party’s immediate rescue priority is the Thrantorbury time loop involving Minfilia, Fina, Oscar, Tiphanie, and the Crown Prince.
  • Lime and Justin are expected to join the rescue. The team plans to arrive outside Thrantorbury University and enter quietly rather than risk its defenses.
  • Lord Boyle may remain behind because Garward Eastonton is his brother.
• A parallel Seneran operation may support Angel Rannek and extract Gwyniviere Rannek. Luana, Kelthyr, Trajan, Sapphire, and possibly Oren are considered for that side.
• Angel Rannek is reported safe with Branrum Malterdale. John, Rebecca, Trajan, and Sapphire are reportedly travelling toward the Rannek Marches.

Feywild, Family, and Allies

• Sapphire continues to grieve the loss of her right wing to Oberon, the Green Lord. An attempted prosthetic does not function while attached, and Mark sees the shadow-like aura of the missing wing through the Glass Eye of True Seeing.
  • During Arcadia’s absence, Sapphire massacred people she knew in her own Feywild hometown under what appears to have been a geas-like compulsion. She remembers the massacre in full and remains subject to Feywild punishment while the responsible court, caster, and path to redemption remain unresolved.
• Emily is pregnant with twins, likely magical children. Mark’s next full moon is fourteen days away, and the group intends to let him endure it in an isolated place so that he can learn control rather than rely on dimensional shackles.
  • The plan draws on general lycanthropic traditions recorded across multiple books, not a single identified manual. Lime, holder of the Spirit of the Moon’s power, offered to ease Mark’s transformation.
• Luana dreams of a colossal green tree where elves live. Oren considers it neither a Tree of Life nor a Feywild crossing, though he senses an unusual fey quality in Luana.
• The party remembers that dead spirits in this world gather at four places nearest the Feywild instead of crossing into it; Mt Brissimis, Skelmark, and Skelwick are among the named sites.

Eastonton, Ruins, and Resources

• The Eastonton receiving site lies in or beside Kalassarian ruins, where Kelthyr detected a hidden or otherwise unseen teleportation circle.
  • Minfilia’s undead and Dark Archons hold the site, and the Green Lord’s grove stands near the circle.
  • Marcus Parnassus, the Kalassarian scholar Minfilia raised as an intelligent skeleton beneath Eastonton, may be able to interpret the ruins and their older knowledge.
  • Matzka and Vivian have recovered and returned to work at the orphanage.
• Luana retains the prototype submarine and her Wingwear Glider. Jessica traded rings and a Bag of Holding for dolls intended for refugee children, while the group also acquired an Amulet of Proof against Detection and Location and a Hat of Disguise.
• Legally Bare issue 3.5 is being developed as Phantasmagoria, though Luana has deferred work during the current crisis.

Open Hooks

• Complete the guarded transfer of the remaining Reformist prisoners to Eastonton and decide who will oversee parasite removal and memory recovery.
• Establish whether Castle Malthrek’s cistern circle belongs to Reformists, Ellington, or the missing court wizards, and secure it accordingly.
• Find the missing court wizards, including Stacy Cartwright, and determine whether they were compromised.
• Investigate the recovered prototype submarine with La Camaraderie and learn who built it, where its black powder was headed, and whether the salt supply is being deliberately reduced.
• Rescue Minfilia, Fina, Oscar, Tiphanie, and the Crown Prince from the Thrantorbury time loop.
• Decide how to reach and support Angel Rannek, and whether to extract Gwyniviere Rannek.
• Discover what aided Oren Bell, what Monsignor Adelberto Leonidas’s death enabled for the archons, and whether either lead can break the Thrantorbury loop.
• Learn the fate of the northern drow captives and pursue diplomacy with the Northern Drow Captain.
• Help Sapphire seek accountability, restoration, or redemption without abandoning her remaining Feywild family.
• Understand how the Emerald Shield of Spring and its shards judge worthiness: why a shard revealed itself to Mark despite his own sense that he was not worthy, how that compares with Angel’s worthiness, and how the Reformists obtained the shard they already held before Mark’s shard reached them.
• Pursue Luana’s dream of the great green tree and identify the fourth spirit-gathering site.
• Determine how Aika Miura, called the Mother in multiple Feywild contexts, connects to the Black Box, Emily’s bargain with Oren, and Emily’s plan to help the fey stranded in Senera.
• Learn why the Green Lord’s grove stands within the Eastonton Kalassarian ruins and how it relates to the nearby teleportation circle.
• Determine how the material requirements of a newly made circle scale with its size. Larger Kalassarian circles carried more travellers, but their construction mechanics remain unsettled.
• Test whether strong brining reliably protects against parasite contamination.

Boundaries

• Treat parasite removal as potentially destructive to memories. Ellington’s removal was survived only with careful protection and restoration; the same procedure is not established as safe for every host.
• Preserve the distinction between parasite hosts, changelings, coerced personnel, and willing Reformist collaborators when deciding guilt, custody, or treatment.
• Treat Sapphire’s massacre as a grave act possibly committed under a geas-like compulsion; do not settle responsibility on Sapphire alone while the court and caster remain unknown.
• Emily’s bargain with Oren says that he may open the Black Box if she dies before returning the fey stranded in Senera to the Feywild. It does not explicitly distinguish a revivable death from a final death; leave Oren’s interpretation open, potentially shaped by whether he has found new meaning and connections.
• Do not restrict Aika’s title as the Mother to pixies. Many fey accept the title, and Day Court statuary also presents her as the Mother, but the title’s exact scope and relationship to Baba Yaga and the False Crone remain unsettled. Feywild-side canon may require adjudication from the player who runs Emily and DMs those Feywild games.
• Do not treat the interrupted hag terminology or social and comic speculation about dolls, occult practices, and Feywild customs as settled world lore.