The Vengeful Notes 2026-08-02

Summary

The Reformist threat

• Vice-Marshal Tyrion Donmar received Sapphire, Andrew, Trajan, Sister Pira Tradewise, and Marchioness Maria Rannek in a discreet command tent.
  • Sapphire and Andrew found no unexplained magic beyond emergency healing supplies.
  • Trajan prevented Sister Pira from healing the captives, warning that they required special handling.
• The Reformists have infiltrated settlements, military bases, and possibly the current installation.
  • They contaminate food and implant parasites through victims’ ears to alter their behavior.
  • Their campaign appears intended to exploit political divisions, cripple coordinated resistance, and acquire magical resources.
  • The possibility that these preparations support an aberrant or extraplanar invasion remains a theory.
• Sapphire described aberrations as alien creatures capable of controlling minds and threatening entire realms.
  • She identified herself with Queen Arcadia, the Queen of Ashes, and her Autumn Court in the Feywild.
  • The immense aberration egg once transported to the Hags of Hama headquarters on Raibon Island remains unaccounted for.
• Castle Rannek had been infiltrated by copies and constructs, including false versions of Maria and Gwyniviere and a massive Mark-shaped “perfect” flesh golem from Castle Malthrek.
  • Trajan was using Magistrate Tonon’s appearance after destroying another Tonon copy; the real Tonon was reported dead.
  • Maria requested troops loyal to Senera rather than to her, the Crown, or an unverified command structure.
• The group discussed a layered personnel-screening process before committing forces from the base.
  • Proposed methods included personnel dossiers, investigation of unexpected behavior, private anatomical examinations, and limited magical testing.
  • Anatomical examination should identify Face-Stealers, but it cannot exclude other kinds of shapeshifter or mundane agents relying on disguise, forged credentials, bribery, coercion, or ordinary treachery.
  • No safe and reliable method suitable for indiscriminate screening against every form of infiltration was established.

The Hicklander front

• The Reformists appear to be escalating the Hicklander revolution by infiltrating its forces and provoking both sides.
• Black-powder supplies have resumed despite the raid on the known production site.
  • The Reformists used the Gauntlet of Elemental Transmutation to convert salt into black powder.
  • The surviving production and distribution network has not been located.
• Kelthyr Kulok could potentially assist with negotiations but remains in Thrantorbury.
• Minfilia Diaz and Oscar Savoy are also in Thrantorbury, trapped in a time loop.
• Duke and Duchess Malthrek are at the Travertines while the Duke recovers.
  • His direct involvement might further inflame Hicklanders already fighting Malthrek forces.
• Tyrion Donmar reported no known connection to the different Donmar operating as a Hicklander leader in the Narrows.

Preparing to enter Castle Rannek

• Sir Hilis Brastok, Angel Rannek, Hellion Blanchimontt, Erik Malmann, Gwyniviere Rannek, and possibly Branrum Malterdale prepared to infiltrate Castle Rannek.
  • Their immediate priority was rescuing Sandor Kethlas and other allies rather than reclaiming the entire castle at once.
  • Lance and Uther Rannek remained missing.
• Gwyniviere confirmed that her engagement to Mark Malthrek had ended.
  • She conceded that Angel may have been right to encourage the separation.
  • Angel said that she had never liked Mark and that he simply “felt awful” to her. Whether this reflected Mark’s aberrant parasite, illness, ordinary sisterly jealousy, or simple dislike remains unknown; nobody established that Angel can genuinely sense aberrant parasites.
• Gwyniviere described three concealed approaches into the castle.
  • A cellar route led through the kitchens.
  • A dangerous dungeon route offered the closest concealed approach to the throne room.
  • A neglected, muddy passage suffered from seepage and mold.
• The party instead gathered within range of the castle and prepared to enter with Angel’s Dimension Door.
  • Castle wards might have blocked the spell, in which case they intended to use one of the concealed passages.
  • Erik was assigned magical dispelling duties while Brastok prepared to hold the front line.

The throne room and false Sandor

• After lunch, Angel hummed the Rannek Anthem and transported the gathered party into Castle Rannek’s throne room.
  • Two guards were startled by their arrival.
  • The throne was empty, but the party felt an alarm activate.
• The castle occupants believed Angel had been captured.
  • An apparent false Gwyniviere had been grieving on Mark Malthrek’s arm and claiming that Angel was lost.
  • The impostor had avoided painting by presenting a supposedly cursed hand injury.
• Angel asked for Sebastian Argras and was told that he was at a late lunch with her mother.
• A figure resembling Sandor Kethlas entered and embraced Angel.
  • Angel and Hellion immediately recognized that the figure was not their friend.
  • Before Brastok could restrain it, its body unfolded into a grotesque arrangement of displaced limbs and shifting flesh.
• The creature used stolen private knowledge to taunt Brastok and pleaded with Angel while attacking her companions.
  • It wielded its detached jaw as a blade and grappled Brastok with a hand displaced onto one of its legs.
  • It scattered into crawling limbs through an ability called Procession of Unclaimed Limbs before reassembling elsewhere in the chamber.
• Angel illuminated it with Starry Wisp and inspired Brastok and Malmann.
• Malmann struck it repeatedly with his longsword and Divine Smite.
• Brastok fought with Brannaugh, his recallable magical halberd, and used his Gauntlets of Ogre Power to grapple the creature.
• Hellion attacked with Flurry of Blows, Stunning Strike, and the reach of his Eldritch Claw Tattoo.
  • Crusher allowed him to knock the creature away from Brastok and disrupt its hold.
• The creature repeatedly folded damaged flesh and organs back into place.
  • Hellion detected necromantic energy relinking its component parts.

Restorative rejection

• The party discovered that healing magic caused the composite creature to reject its stolen components.
  • Hellion’s Hand of Healing restored vitality but caused a limb to detach.
  • Angel’s fourth-level Cure Wounds separated much of its lower body.
  • Malmann’s Cure Wounds removed another substantial section.
  • Brastok forced a healing draught into its mouth, causing its jaw and nearby tissue to deteriorate and separate.
• Gentle Repose was considered as another way to disrupt the necromantic links, but nobody present had prepared it.
• The party destroyed the creature, leaving its component limbs and body scattered across the throne room.
  • Sandor’s extracted face had been worn as a mask over the dappled skin of another shapeshifter.
  • The party inferred that the shapeshifter had been forced into Sandor’s form and incorporated into the composite body.

The urdefolcin remains

• A heart-like fragment recovered from false Sandor was identified as part of an ancient, non-humanoid forest protector called an urdefolcin.
  • The fragment appeared to be only one portion of its heart.
  • Hags reportedly use such fragments in rituals and curses.
  • An angered urdefolcin may curse an individual or an entire village.
• Urdefolcins were described as protectors of forest communities native to Senera and comparatively rare in the Feywild.
• They may “plant” Shambling Mounds as defensive creatures when a forest needs them.
• Oren Bell already knew that Mallow had been trading with hags for urdefolcin-heart fragments, but only now learned that Mallow obtained them for use in his “puppets.”
• Dragons, unicorns, and urdefolcins were described as sources of exceptionally powerful magical components whose hunting is forbidden.

Securing the castle

• The party warned the guards that Sandor’s interrupted Sending had reported the castle’s capture.
• Branrum found that most of the household appeared unaware of the infiltration.
  • He suspected the Reformists had moved first against the court wizards.
  • He had heard Sandor’s name associated with “the tower” and continued searching for him.
• Angel and Gwyniviere sought the fortified Rannek family refuge so that they could secure loyalists.
  • A concealed entrance in the audience chamber was opened by twisting away Uther Rannek’s chair.
  • Maria revealed by Sending that its latch was hidden beneath the chair’s emergency privy cover.
• The passages leading to the refuge were built to funnel intruders past defenders, but the party encountered no guards.
• A Mystery Key created a keyhole in the bunker’s lock, moved the barricade within, and disappeared after opening the door.

Stacy Cartwright and Auraxx

• Inside the bunker, the party found Stacy Cartwright, a frightened unidentified woman, and a crying baby.
  • The woman repeatedly denied being the Marchioness.
  • Stacy described her as the future mother-in-law of one of the lords she had sworn to protect.
• Conflicting supernatural readings suggested that one altered person contained human, draconic, aberrant, and partly undead elements.
• Brastok restrained Stacy while an ally administered a Greater Restoration potion.
  • Her eyes and mind cleared, but she remained unable to control her body.
  • She retained complete awareness of what the body had done.
• Legend Lore revealed that Stacy had accepted a Reformist bargain because she believed she was protecting the Malthreks.
  • Crispin Mallow later removed the controlling parasite from her head but subjected her to a harsher form of control.
  • The revelation was presented through Stacy’s voice and a second voice identified as Auraxx, a gold dragon whose anatomy had been grafted into her.
  • Stacy did not control her grafted body. The dramatic second voice did not establish whether Auraxx remained separately conscious or possessed any control of it.
• Legend Lore also revealed that Auraxx had persuaded the Archfey to send the fey refugees of the Draco-Giant War through the Realm Bridge.
  • An unnamed superior within the draconic forces ordered him not to accompany them. He disobeyed and entered in humanoid form so he could protect the refugees wherever the crossing ended.
  • The crossing carried the refugees into Senera, where they became the ancestors of its present fey communities.
  • A curse anticipated Auraxx’s choice and imprisoned him within an innocent-looking gold canary figurine.
• Stacy apparently found the canary among Mark Malthrek’s possessions.
  • Mallow somehow invoked the canary’s adult-dragon form under controlled conditions and extracted Auraxx’s manifested body.
  • The canary’s chipped damage corresponded to Auraxx’s bones being removed from the manifestation.
  • Mallow first used Stacy as a testbed for incorporation, giving her the least magically powerful portions of Auraxx: scale-bearing skin; distal forelimb bones and tendons with a claw root; terminal wing digits and membrane; and pieces of rib, sternum, cartilage, and marrow.
  • The skin grafts supplied the foundation for the counterfeit scales that later covered her transformed body.
  • After the test, Mallow melded the majority of Auraxx into himself.
  • The damaged canary continues to exist because Auraxx’s soul remains imprisoned within it.

Battle in the bunker

• The melded body breathed unstable fire and radiant energy, badly injuring Erik Malmann.
  • Angel restored him with Healing Hands.
• Hellion stunned Stacy’s body, allowing the party to bind it and place a Ring of Mind Shielding on Stacy.
  • The ring produced no observable change but remained with her.
• The restraints later snapped as the body grew counterfeit dragon anatomy, including scales, claws, and mismatched wings formed from humanoid flesh.
• Brastok struck the creature with Brannaugh before an effect resembling Flesh to False Gold encased and restrained him.
  • Angel used Slow, broke the casing at a vulnerable point, and healed him.
• Malmann used Lay on Hands, Divine Smite, and Inspiring Smite to remain in the fight and protect Brastok.
• Hellion attacked with his manifested blade and unarmed strikes.
• Stacy’s grafted body teleported into the air through Unstable Translation, leaving a molten eruption beneath it.
  • Brastok, Hellion, and Malmann evaded the eruption.
  • Angel answered with Mantle of Inspiration, shielding and repositioning her allies.
• By the end of the recovered events, the castle-retaking operation was largely complete and cleanup had begun.
  • Stacy remained in need of rescue and relocation.
  • Her employer was informed that she had been found.

Oren’s reconnaissance

• Another group advanced toward Maiden’s Field and the compromised military installation.
• Oren Bell continued scouting the perimeter from a distance and “nipping at the edges” of the installation.
  • He reported that a number of people remained beyond the enemy’s reach; some occupants had attempted to flee following an unspecified purge.
• Oren reported that the enemy commonly employs Face-Stealers and flesh golems resembling Malthreks.
  • The enemy claims to preserve a shapeshifter’s assumed face after death.
  • Oren suspects that the enemy may also be a shapeshifter.
• The group used Enthrall to distract unaware guards and pass without a confrontation.
• The travelers considered whether harvesting urdefolcins might provoke the Green Lord.
  • Active shrines suggested that his power still reaches the region despite its apparent separation from the Feywild.
  • One theory proposed that elves preserve part of that connection through their innate nature magic.
  • An unidentified companion claimed that Oren is an avatar of the Green Lord, but the claim was not established.

Faith and creation

• Sir Erik Malmann wrestled with how Divine Masochist doctrine accommodates gods, Archfey, celestials, other religions, and competing sources of magic while remaining committed to his faith.
• Raw magic was compared to paint that requires consciousness to give it form.
  • This supported a theory that a primordial “first painter” shaped the world through words and raw magic.
• Deathengel was identified as a planetar, prompting questions about whether celestials serve a still-greater power.
• Divine Masochist tradition had syncretized pagan traditions about their goddesses, recasting them as the Angels of Civilization and Nature who enact the Divine Masochist’s intentions.
  • In one such story, the Angel of Civilization brought fire, medicine, art, and civilization before pride transformed her into the Devil of Hubris.
  • Sapphire found the idea of angels becoming devils or demons through a fall amusing. Celestials and infernals instead understand angels, devils, and demons as separate species from separate planes of existence.
• The travelers also discussed how long-lived beings—including elves, dragons, baelnorns, archliches, urdefolcins, and celestials—might change or lose themselves over time.
• The disagreement over creation, divine hierarchy, and the ultimate source of magic remained unresolved.

The Admiralty facility

• At an Admiralty facility or dockyard in western Rannek, the party met Vice-Marshal Tyrion Donmar again.
• The party sought a teleportation circle.
  • The facility possessed one, but nobody present could cast the requisite spell or had spell slots sufficient to operate it.
  • The party asked whether a competent caster who knew the needed destination sigil could be brought in that night.
• Several typically sized Orbs of Enhancement were handed over.
  • The orbs would supply the material cost and spell-slot requirement; operation would still require a caster able to read the spell without stuttering and knowledge of the destination’s sigil.

Open Hooks

• Determine how deeply the Reformists have infiltrated Senera’s political, military, religious, and civilian institutions, and establish a responsible way to screen compromised personnel.
• Locate the real Sandor Kethlas, the missing court wizards, and any other surviving Castle Rannek loyalists.
• Determine separately where Uther and Lance Rannek are and establish each one’s condition.
• Identify the remaining impostors and constructs within Castle Rannek and the military installation.
• Discover what has happened in Maiden’s Field and whether the relatives still there are safe.
• Find a way to free Minfilia and Oscar from the time loop in Thrantorbury.
• Identify the enemy directing the Face-Stealers and flesh golems, along with his method of preserving stolen faces and controlling his puppets.
• Find the remaining black-powder network and someone capable of opening credible negotiations with the Hicklanders.
• Determine who controls the aberration egg from Raibon Island and whether the Reformists are preparing for an extraplanar invasion.
• Learn whether the Reformists are seeking ancient ruins, runes, or some other magical resource.
• Identify the frightened woman and baby found with Stacy and explain why the woman was considered a future mother-in-law to one of Stacy’s sworn lords.
• Discover what force controls Stacy’s Auraxx-grafted body and how Mallow imposed that control.
• Recover or neutralize the Auraxx-derived grafts in Stacy and determine whether she can be freed without sacrificing her life.
• Identify who cursed Auraxx and whether the curse-maker was connected to the unknown person who foresaw or studied the Realm Bridge.
• Establish how Mark acquired the gold canary, what he knew about Auraxx, and where Mark is now.
• Investigate the statement that “a life must end.” Its current minimum referent is Stacy’s life, but the exact meaning, any additional cost, and its relationship to releasing Auraxx’s soul remain unresolved.
• Decide whether to invoke the figurine’s giant-canary form and attempt to speak with Auraxx through that body.
• Determine how the Green Lord’s power reaches Senera and whether elves or forests retained magic during the centuries when magic was believed absent.
• Learn the full nature of urdefolcins, including their origins, biology, masks, and how they “plant” Shambling Mounds as forest defenders.
• Find a competent caster who can read the teleportation spell without stuttering and knows the destination’s sigil, so the Orbs of Enhancement can supply its material and spell-slot costs.

Confirmations Needed

• Confirm how Mark acquired the gold canary, what he understood about it, and how it passed from him to Stacy before Mallow dismantled Auraxx’s manifested body.
• Identify who possessed truesight in the bunker and why that person was addressed as “dragon.”
• Determine whether the false Sandor was itself an aberration or a necromantic composite assembled from other creatures.
• Confirm the Admiralty facility’s precise location and identify a competent caster with knowledge of the required destination sigil.

Boundaries

• Trajan is a Face-Stealer, not a doppelganger, and his species does not by itself make him untrustworthy.
• Face-Stealers, doppelgangers, and changelings are biologically distinct. Seneran changeling communities have not been established as Reformist allies.
• Anatomical screening can positively identify Face-Stealers, but passing it does not prove loyalty or exclude other shapeshifters and mundane infiltrators.
• The Mark-shaped construct was confirmed as one of Castle Malthrek’s “perfect” flesh golems when Oren’s exact command—“and his name was Rumplestiltskin”—successfully disabled it.
• The earlier request to deploy forces into Maiden’s Field was authenticated using something taken from Marquess Uther or Lance Rannek. Its exact form was intentionally left vague; whether the request helped the impostors gain admission remains unresolved.
• The Reformists’ connection to a coming aberrant or extraplanar invasion remains a working theory, not a confirmed objective.
• Legend Lore presented the gold canary as a prison created by a curse; later canon reconciliation confirmed that account and superseded the earlier self-made-chrysalis theory.
• Auraxx’s dismantled body cannot be restored or revived. His soul remains imprisoned within the canary, preserving the damaged figurine, and could potentially be released.
• The Opium Town archlich was raised through an unfollowed Feywild thread involving Stitches, a shop where necromancers performed similar body-stitching experiments. No direct connection to Auraxx, Stacy, Mallow, or the canary has been established.
• Greater Restoration restored Stacy’s clarity but did not return control of her body.
• Healing magic caused false Sandor’s composite parts to reject one another, but this did not establish that the creature possessed ordinary regeneration or that Gentle Repose would have worked.
• The theological accounts discussed during the journey represent competing in-world beliefs and theories rather than settled cosmology.
• The transformation of angels into devils or demons belongs to syncretic Divine Masochist tradition. It is not the celestial or infernal account of their origins; they regard angels, devils, and demons as separate planar species.
• Queen Arcadia bears the title “Queen of Ashes” and rules the Autumn Court.
• Urdefolcin is the canonical spelling. Their role as ancient forest protectors and the known uses of their remains do not settle their full taxonomy, origin, or biology. They may “plant” Shambling Mounds to defend a forest, but how they do so remains an Open Hook.
• Sebastian Argras is House Rannek’s seneschal and is not a court wizard. Only Angel calls him “Butler,” an imprecise domestic description that may also carry familiarity or affection rather than his official designation.