The Vengeful Notes 2026-07-12

Summary

Eastonton Paladinate

• Eastonton’s former training grounds now serve as a relief camp.
  • Kate Helsinki runs triage and first aid while frailer refugees shelter in tents; stronger refugees and trainees, including casters, stay in the training grounds.
  • Sensodyne leads public morning drills, and Sir Lannis helps recruits with posture and form.
  • Recruits receive food, lodging, and training before earning pay through their oaths and ranks.
• The Reformist prisoners transferred from Castle Malthrek had already been immobilized by the time Sensodyne spoke with the arriving group.
• The rescued paladins are learning to live without Reformist control.
  • Sir Essen survived parasite removal only through Minfilia’s greater restoration, but remains without a stable sense of self.
  • Lord Boyle rejects the former restrictions on marriage and celibacy associated with the old Order of Justice practices.
• Nelson and Nandor remain at home under the care of Madeline, Garward Eastonton’s former wife and Nandor’s mother.
  • Nelson is the son of Garward and the late Maude Eastonton; Madeline is his stepmother, making Nelson and Nandor paternal half-brothers.
  • Minfilia travelled to Thrantorbury after receiving information that Madeline was being abused and enslaved until she became weak. Boyle’s brief reference to the captive as Maude is retconned to Madeline; Maude’s established death remains unchanged.
• Luana prepares dolls for later distribution among the camp’s children. Kelthyr Kulok, who carries a doll resembling Luana, was last reported near the grove.
• Luana, who publishes and models as Cinna Moan, is preparing Legally Bare issue 3.5, Phantasmagoria, for release next week.
  • The autumn issue will be collectively written, painted, and printed by the girls, with Gwyniviere Rannek expected to guide its creative direction.
  • The models draw their costumes from paper lots kept in Luana’s star-shaped Star Jar.
    • Boyle accidentally draws Werewolf for Miya, who had specifically rejected it. Luana draws Succubus and exchanges assignments with her, leaving Luana as Werewolf and Miya as Succubus.
    • Luana asks Oren to carry the Star Jar onward so that Angel can draw as well; Angel receives Vampire.
  • Sir Lannis agrees in principle to help as a community representative while the others are away.
  • No feature location, complete model lineup, or final collaboration arrangements are yet settled.

Battlement Inn

• Oren teleports the group to the Battlement Inn in Malterdale, where they plan to stay overnight before responding to the Rannek crisis.
  • The inn occupies a ruined battlement with lingering Feywild magic near the place where Angel found an Emerald Shield of Spring shard beneath an image of the Green Lord.
  • The group considers moving to Branrum Malterdale’s restaurant, but remains at the inn in case something attacks the Ranneks. They use the Ranneks’ rooms for private conversations.
  • Hellion serves strawberry shakes and macarons, and a strawberry cake is prepared.
• Sapphire and Trajan arrive as reinforcements associated with Hedwig’s crew and Minfilia.
  • Letters place Luana and Kelthyr at Castle Malthrek, helping with the continuing crisis there.
  • Angel brings the group to Marchioness Maria Rannek to deliver urgent news about Angel’s father; Maria orders them to investigate.
• The Scarlet’s quartermaster tracks the group’s needs through a magical notebook paired with Rosie’s copy.

Rannek emergency

• The party turns toward Angel Rannek after contact with Marquess Uther Rannek, Lance, and Christian Marlion is lost.
  • Marchioness Maria Rannek fears a Reformist operation may be using the crisis to expose or capture Angel.
  • Reformists at Castle Faltir used the Gauntlet of Elemental Transmutation to turn salt into black powder and loaded it onto a submarine whose route map pointed toward Maiden’s Field.
  • Angel sends Sandor instructions to await Maria’s command and alert the court wizards.
• Angel has two shards of the Emerald Shield of Spring.
  • The party debates whether continuing the shard search could expose the enemy, or whether Angel should instead be moved and protected.
• The group discusses hunting Crispin Mallow, whom they describe as a “puppet master, probably taking on faces.”
  • Oren Bell believes Mallow possesses true seeing, although its mechanism remains unknown. The group separately considers whether Mallow is a cambion or ancient dragon.
  • “Taking on faces” could describe shapeshifting generally or refer to a Face-Stealer; none of those identities are confirmed.
• Gwyniviere receives Mark Malthrek’s request to meet and reconsider their provisional engagement.
  • She is devastated, but begins an emotion-led painting after Hellion encourages her to feel the loss rather than erase it.
• Oren travels with the group as reinforcement.
  • He confirms that he was born Orellian of the Highguard and was raised as Oren by Makur and Aiwen after surviving the Elven Genocide. In the present day, he chooses Oren Bell as the name of the person he has become.
• Angel remains determined to reach Bastion despite warnings that its enclosed city is effectively impossible to enter.

Port-Sera-by-Malterdale escape

• An invisible intruder shadows the Rannek party during travel.
  • Gwyniviere’s departure sketch first revealed a bodiless floating head; later, heat metal distressed an unseen human carrying metal, suggesting greater invisibility.
  • The party suspects a Reformist observer who now knows their faces.
• The Sea Crawler is stranded at Port-Sera-by-Malterdale after a sudden storm damages its mast.
  • Repairs were deliberately delayed by a dockworker coerced through a parasite placed in their ear. Sapphire’s treatment expels the parasite, which Andrew preserves in a vial.
  • A Gem of Minute Seeing confirms that the inspected Sea Crawler captain is not a changeling.
• With danger escalating, Marchioness Maria invokes her authority to secure emergency transport.
  • Hellion removes a ward or device from the incoming dinghy and distrusts the obvious naval route.
  • The disguised Rannek party slips through Port-Sera-by-Malterdale’s dockside streets, reaches a concealed pirate cove, and hires covert passage to Port Mibram.

Aboard the Illegally Bear

• The party departs Port-Sera-by-Malterdale aboard the pirate vessel Illegally Bear, travelling under cover toward Port Mibram.
  • Tugboats pull the ship out of the hidden cove before it reaches open water.
  • The hook-handed captain operates under the name Illegal E. Bear; his true name remains unstated, and he is infamous for avoiding commitment.
  • Illegal E. Bear gives the disguised Ranneks protected crew quarters while Hellion, Branrum, Andrew, and the guards remain nearby.
• The group remains alert for pursuit while the ship continues downstream.
  • Angel and Sir Hilis Brastok have sex above deck, indulging the exhibitionist streak shared to varying degrees among the Legally Bare models.
  • The crow’s-nest lookout, whose station holds copies of issues 1–3, repeatedly watches them and appears to masturbate with a magazine in hand instead of his looking glass.

Fey, celestial, and personal discussions

• The group distinguishes celestials from gods: celestials are mortal beings whose aid and loyalty are choices, and falling does not automatically make one a devil.
• Hellion describes Fey mating bonds as rare, lasting soul-connections that may let partners sense one another’s injuries.
  • Lover’s Lake in the Autumn Court may recognize such bonds and grant a Lover’s Boon, but its rules and rewards remain uncertain.
  • Hellion believes his long-lost wood-elf mate may have died after conflict with Valdas in Nymph’s Fields.
• Sapphire continues to recover from her recent manic episode and from the loss of her wing.
  • Jessica wants to support Sapphire as a friend; the group advises her not to press too hard, but not to let go.
• Lime privately entrusts Kelthyr with a precious seed-like gift in the hedge maze.
  • The seed was given to Lime by the urdefolcin she spared during her Candle Bearer test, when her uncle Germaine Schulze ordered her to kill the creature and bring back its heart.
  • Lime asks Kelthyr to find a suitable place where the seed can be planted and cared for. She suggests that it may offer solace to elven ancestors, but its exact relationship to a Tree of Life or to Oren Bell remains uncertain.
• The Thrantorbury time loop remains urgent. Marcus Parnassus considers the effect theoretically possible through abjuration magic looping back into itself, but says its scale should be impossible even for the largest orbs known in his time. Kelthyr, Luana, Lime, and Justin are expected to help resolve the crisis.

Open Hooks

• Reach Rannekford, re-establish contact with Uther Rannek and Lance, and determine whether Angel’s family is already being used as leverage.
• Identify the Reformist leadership behind the black-powder submarine, the Faltir operation, and the threat against Angel.
• Determine whether Angel should continue seeking Emerald Shield shards as bait or be moved to safety.
• Learn how shard-finding works, whether the enemy can recruit another finder, and what Oren’s lead can reveal.
• Find the invisible Reformist observer and determine how its greater invisibility and apparent true seeing can be countered.
• Investigate who coerced the Sea Crawler worker, caused the sudden storm, and compromised Port-Sera-by-Malterdale’s travel arrangements.
• Question or study the captured parasite for intelligence about its hosts and handlers.
• Break the Thrantorbury time loop and rescue Minfilia, Fina, Oscar, Tiphanie, and the Crown Prince.
• Determine the purpose, command word, and limits of the spectral-horse harness, and learn why Justin received the crimson vials.
• Learn the fate of Hellion’s mate, Valdas’s role in Nymph’s Fields, and what became of House Blanchimontt’s control.

Boundaries

• Treat rescued paladins, parasite hosts, coerced workers, changelings, and willing Reformist collaborators as distinct groups when assigning responsibility or deciding treatment.
• The Reformists’ exploitation of salt for black powder and the submarine route toward Maiden’s Field are established; their ultimate military objective and involvement in the Hicklander war remain unconfirmed.
• Angel is a celestial and the biological child of the human Uther and Maria Rannek, but the cause of her celestial nature remains unknown. Her statement that she “came from the Feywild” does not establish her birthplace or make the Feywild the homeland of angels as a species; angels may be dispatched there, and some may be spawned there. A celestial is not inherently a god or ruler, and a fallen angel remains a celestial rather than automatically becoming a devil.
• Fey mating bonds are not ordinary romance: they are rare, lasting connections whose exact mechanics, rejection, and death consequences remain unresolved.
• The party’s opposition is directed at Reformist harm and coercive hierarchy, not at every person who once believed Reformism was hopeful or who remains entangled in it.
• Do not treat the Legally Bare issue 3.5’s proposed models, costumes, location, or creative collaboration as finalized until Gwyniviere and the contributors settle them.