The Vengeful Notes 2026-08-30

The Streamside Sanctuary

• At the streamside sanctuary outside Maiden’s Field, Hellion asked the three hags their names. The answering hag introduced herself as Esmeralda and named her sisters Farrah and Georgina.
• He summoned Oren by sending stone; Dean drove the arriving carriage because Malmann was already present.
  • Esmeralda remained and flirted after her sisters vanished, but Hellion postponed any dalliance for the meeting, especially with minors present.
• The company discussed Face-Stealers, changelings, doppelgangers, shifters, Crispin Mallow, and Tiphanie, a Feywild hag and cat-shifting shapeshifter who may have used another name during the Dracogiant War.
  • They also recalled that many Feywild beings forgot themselves when magic disappeared.
• Angel, interrupted while taking tea with her sisters, arranged another teleportation through Bertram and the mercenaries.
• At Maidenfeld’s worldwide Buyers Company, suspected Reformist agents and captured offices were being investigated after a representative admitted the day’s failure.
  • Steven led guests through his ready room, activated a bookshelf mechanism and illusory wall, and revealed a pocket-dimensional office with a teleportation circle linked in some way to the Reformists.
  • Discussion ranged across Emily’s near-Archfey power, Oberon’s changed status, the Tanduarian Katalin Helsinki (Kate) and the Nightshift Nurses, and Katalin’s reported presence in Rannekford with the speaker’s mother and the Duke and Duchess Malthrek.
• Dimitri had been casting Teleportation Circle daily, but Hellion supplied twenty Orbs of Enhancement arranged by Hilis Brastok.
  • The Enhancement orbs already held magical energy; the first-level spell was understood to initialize the spellcaster’s intention.
  • The group reviewed five purported orb varieties: Endowment, red Repulsion, purple enhancement, yellow Absorption, and an unidentified fifth.
  • Absorption orbs draw raw magic and release it explosively. In the teleportation procedure, the narration described a first-level spell being used with the already-charged Enhancement orbs at an established circle.
• Bertram and six companions formed the first successful batch, followed by more mercenaries; Hellion welcomed Gwyniviere and Bertram into the sanctuary, with Angel and a sister expected last.
  • The company also entertained a concealed recognition plan.
  • The discussion touched on elven pregnancy, childbirth, and a gender-changing belt; one item remained redacted.
• Angel arrived with Laudine, her husband Robert, and her brother, while Dimitri stayed behind.
  • Angel encouraged the child-bearing proposal.
• Hellion underwent formal questioning about his noble birth, estates, inheritance, and elven property rights in Senera.
  • He was presented as Hellion Blanchimontt, the elves’ chosen official voice, while Steven Maidenfeld named himself master of the Spice Company’s fleet.
• The newcomers expected the rescue of their father and brother and the removal of an occupier; Angel accepted responsibility for freeing the father, potentially using him as bait.
  • Crispin’s amiable demeanor was treated as a mask.
• A memory of Magistrate Tonon, recovered through the earlier Castle Rannek investigation, was shown to Laudine and Robert using Encode Thoughts. This was a recollection, not Tonon appearing in person; the real magistrate was already dead.

Intelligence at the Sanctuary

• Angel’s deeds against the Reformists were already known, but Rannekford was only one part of a larger crisis: Senera was reportedly occupied, northern Poasah was troubled, and Turain’s representatives had repeatedly missed treaty meetings.
  • The region ordinarily lay within the reach of the Mehicanian and Seneran navies and Freehold mercenaries.
  • Turain’s excuses were suspected of concealing ties to Los Illustrados and Monsignor Leonidas, Minfilia’s slain mentor.
• The adults deferred sensitive discussion because children were listening, provoking Angel’s objection.
  • With a real risk that her father might be transformed, his rescue became the priority.
• Oren, introduced as a former Reformist bound by a deal with Emily, placed himself and a companion at Angel’s disposal.
• Fragmentary reports described the Marquis rescuing people threatened with drowning, bannermen reluctantly retreating before an unidentified force, Count Marcellan serving as second in command, and the Marquis then traveling to Maiden’s Field.
  • Steven identified himself as Master of the Fleets and deferred the fuller battle account to his father, the Baron. The exchange distinguished Robert’s role in accounts.
  • The Baron’s forces had withdrawn to the keep.
  • Troops sent to protect the harvest found the bridge destroyed and approaches isolated, forcing ships to maintain supply lines.
• A local noble blamed radicalized Hicklanders and wanted Kelthyr Kulok, while others emphasized commoners’ vulnerability to enchantment and abuse.
  • The noble portrayed the movement as once-peaceful Apgar-like dissent, admitted some authorities had been too harsh, and cited his brother Tristan as a source while denying systematic exploitation of workers.
• La Camaraderie, the Apgarian government, and other agents were considered, with Sanery suggesting that Apgar itself might be a Reformist front.
  • Reformists were reportedly using a soul gem to infiltrate Mayonne’s military base.
• Separate reports from Racos Palma described assaults by Mehicanian officers hunting supposed soldiers.
• Intelligence from Sanery described Reformist control and a scam involving Nightshift Nurses, whose provocative publication nevertheless carried useful articles.
  • Laudine rejected modeling under either the Rannek or Maidenfeld name.
• Esmeralda met Laudine and the Rannek sisters and discussed exploiting the forest’s beauty for perfume; she identified herself as a hag, joining a broader web of hag relationships that included Miss Tiffany in Lyme.
• Jokes about harems gave way to disagreement over the Green Lord, variously defended as kind and Celestia-blessed or condemned as a usurper.
  • While celestials are watched in the Feywild, only Archfey supposedly know the full truth of their influence.
• Searchers then began probing the sanctuary.
  • The defenders were asked to confuse rather than kill them, lest deaths expose the group’s location.
• Angel urged a direct move to Rannekford to warn her father, while acknowledging he might be replaced or hostage; safeguards against changelings already existed but were not considered infallible.
• Discussion connected ancient figures, the massacre of Senerans at Tidemark, Narmaya’s three-hundred-year history and Apgar-Bastion trade work, and Rish, a priest-smith whose reputation sold armor despite at least one substandard commission.
  • A priest recalled selling a journal, vestments, and mallet.
• Another secretive group had an undisclosed Hicklander assignment and trusted Vinicius through House Rannek.
• Because Maiden’s Field covers roughly two thousand square miles, Angel’s vision of her father caged in a prison-like place did not identify his location.
  • Locate Creature might narrow the search after they crossed into the barony, but the result might be a deliberate lure; many missing allies could also be hidden in caves or karsts.
  • The party considered consulting another father, using the keep’s teleportation circle, and preparing for changelings, Face-Stealers, and new stitched foes.
  • Angel pressed for immediate action.
• Crispin Mallow’s hatred of the Maidenfelds appeared personal, while the family remained protective of its spice routes.

Dragons, Hag Magic, and Hedwig

• The family guarded a remote spice source which creatures associated with Surrey’s Ear might reveal, much as hags guarded the Thralmals pools.
  • One hag insisted deals could be broken, but nobody chose to force that breach.
• Hellion described a father caught between provocations involving Hicklanders and Maidenfelds.
  • The group supported the Ranneks without embracing every faction.
  • Robert invoked the Maidenfelds’ duty as bannermen to their liege lord. If his father fell to the Reformists, Robert said he would kill him himself, in accordance with his father’s mandate.
  • Angel reminded Hellion that they could still save the Baron: if he had a parasite, she could heal him.
  • Reformist ranks extended beyond those known.
• Reports tied Crispin Mallow to Face-Stealers, changelings, truesight, and a possible merger with a golden dragon.
  • That dragon was identified as Auraxx, an elven and Realm Bridge ally cursed by an Archfey into the Gold Canary.
  • Mallow later acquired the canary and became associated with a golden-winged humanoid.
• Dragon scales and Dragonheart traditions raised the possibility that his vendetta concerned ancestors who killed dragons and ate their hearts.
  • The Maidenfeld name itself reportedly dates to Kalassar.
• The party planned to use the keep’s known teleportation sigil, but capacity and limited spell slots made twenty passengers difficult.
  • Enhancement orbs might establish a new point, although public use was irresponsible.
• A bargain restricted disclosure of its terms. Seneran hags cannot enter Maidenfeld demesnes; this is not a general prohibition on magic across Maiden’s Field.
  • The exclusion includes the Children of the Crone. Rogue or Adapted hags were discussed as possible loopholes, not demonstrated exceptions.
• Hellion contacted Captain Hedwig aboard the Scarlet at about nine in the morning.
  • Hedwig agreed to attempt entry with two sisters, without elves or eladrin, in exchange for a unique beer.
  • The sanctuary would admit the three genuine allies and reject actual hostiles, ignoring insincere jokes about Gwyniviere and Angel.
• While waiting, the group recalled tea and sweets at Cece’s house.
  • Cece invents stories for her toys, longs for real friends, and is kept mainly on her parents’ estate.
• Hedwig arrived as a tall black-haired woman in her customary red dress, accompanied by formidable magic.
  • Esmeralda approached; Farrah and Georgina offered flowers.
  • Gwyniviere and Angel were present, with Angel compared to Volupta, syncretized in the Divine Masochist tradition as the Angel of Delight.
• The group asked for transport to Maiden’s Field.
  • Hedwig recognized the hag entanglements and judged only two people directly under Esmeralda’s spell, with another bond based on blood.
• Introductions included mercenaries hired for five thousand gold, Bertram Dorand, Steven Maidenfeld, Oren Bell, Robert Maidenfeld, Jane, and Jennifer.
  • Robert called himself Laudine Rannek’s husband and master of accounts.
  • Steven explained that some Maidenfelds retain the name while repudiating the family.
• Hedwig used the surname Guildenstern and recalled relatives commissioning stage costumes.
• The intended mission would test whether hags could enter Maiden’s Field.
  • With ships unavailable and barges distant, a proposal to flood part of Senera for access was rejected.
• In a reciprocal intelligence exchange, Sanery was described as overrun.
  • Balimbano was officially dead and his death used to justify military action, but sightings placed him near L’Illes Apgarie.
  • Further action toward Mayonne and pirate-linked locations was proposed.

The Hags of Hama Prepare the Crossing

• Balimbano’s death remained disputed: one crew claimed it relocated him alive, while enemies may have displayed a body.
  • Producing him could undermine the rationale for war, though committed supporters might accept any body.
• The pirate islands were widely maligned, faced pressure around Shagnery, and were expected to draw a response from La Camaraderie.
  • Shagnery is a nickname for Nautillon, mocking the name of Sanery.
• Angel received Morbid Curiosities, a Feywild-monster book from the Feydark’s Shit Shop, with instructions that Sir Brastok read it aloud.
• Discussion identified Aika as the human Mother with considerable Feywild influence, contrasted her with the hated hag Queen Arcadia, and described ancient magic that traps local souls away from the Tree of Life and the Mother.
  • Tiphanie, older and more mysterious than she appeared, was reportedly at Thrantorbury with the Crown Prince.
• Hedwig’s assessment confirmed the bloodline bargain as powerful hag magic, although she and the travelers might not be bound by it.
  • A Feywild-connected woman had already sent uncertain reinforcements and offered teleportation.
  • The price was support for Mystine Nightingale through subscriptions to Nightshift Nurses and Legally Bare.
  • The crew already carried many copies, though the publications’ women generally avoided them.
• Hellion named Crispin Mallow as the creature-making opponent.
  • Believing Oren sufficient, the party declined more combat help.
• A rival mocked Arcadia as the autumnal Queen of Rot whose strength was limited to the Feywild.
  • The group asked to return to the Scarlet later.
• Side discussion placed Sapphire with Andrew, distinguished him from Mark and John, and left Andrew’s brewery connection unclear.
• To counter Mallow’s puppets and Tree Stride, the party considered blanketing Rannekford with storms.
  • Hedwig, Jane, and Jennifer formed a teleportation triad for two batches.
  • Sir Brastok urged Angel onward while the hags prepared the crossing.
• Discussion connected a man’s altered attraction to elves with a bloodline hag deal, revisited Hellion’s conversation with Gwyniviere about bearing a child, and noted someone’s fiery-red rage hair.
• The Thralmals pools were suggested as refuge for victims, but an important infant was already there and the resident sisters answered to another authority.
  • The Hama-linked cousins recognized the travelers’ reputation.
• Hedwig drew a large sigil with her blood and sealed the bargain by shaking hands with Esmeralda, who also bit her hand.
  • Esmeralda withheld her blood from the teleportation circle, fearing that the hags’ prior deal with the Maidenfeld family might prevent the travelers from entering Maiden’s Field if she contributed it. Her blood sealed the handshake, not the circle.
  • The travelers invoked their survival against Archfey, dragons, and Reformists as reason to risk the crossing.
• Hedwig of Rozenmaiden then authorized a one-hundred-thousand-gold bounty for Garward Eastonton, payable for his head, plus one thousand gold per ranking Reformist official’s head.
  • A separate one-thousand-gold reward applied to each Reformist church found and proven; destruction of the church was not required.
  • A licensed mercenary agreed to post it.
  • The commercially discreet Maidenfelds avoided higher peerage.
• An earlier bounty concerned the Mirian Trading Company and the green liquid it was said to have brought ashore.
• Hardpebble anomalies had recently slowed, while Poasah’s Thirteen—its highest magical command and the body credited with restoring Kalassarian magical teaching—were reportedly infiltrated.
  • Hellion contributed one hundred gold when the bounty was posted.
• Hedwig asked to collect Gwyniviere’s acceptance of the contract to become Art Director for Legally Bare and bring it to Mystine, who was connected to the same Management.
  • Gwyniviere instead had instructions from Mystine to give it to Luana Victorique Dubreuil when they next met. The two instructions concerned the same contract; no handover was recorded.
  • A brief scuffle involving Gwyniviere prompted her insistence that she was an artist, not a lady.
• The fleet had fantasized about capturing members of the Free Theater; preserved bodies were mentioned.
  • Outstanding bounties included living Alfred Panet, the destroyed Moro Monster, and Oscar Savoy, despite continuity placing Oscar and Minfilia inside Thrantorbury’s loop.
• Oren suggested that Hedwig’s Feylike resemblance to Queen Arcadia might win her an exception from local elves.
• Hedwig addressed the hags, primarily Esmeralda, as sad sisters with trapped souls.
  • Esmeralda tried Elven and Sylvan to establish understanding, then spoke quietly to Hedwig out of Oren’s and the others’ hearing.
  • They said freedom might someday be purchased and demanded payment for their service, with the Mother’s role uncertain.
• Hedwig then promised to transport all thirty-plus travelers with her sisters.
  • In the same exchange, the hags identified themselves as the Hags of Hama.
• The group recalled Emily Hazeldine’s technical hag status and Hedwig’s habit of sending people out for food, especially Zuñiga flans.
  • Philia and Stacy were discussed as future party guests.

Maidenfeld Keep and the Flooded Front

• The blood-drawn circle delivered the company into a preserved Kalassarian chamber beneath Maidenfeld Keep.
  • The family had occupied and maintained the complex since Kalassarian times, though many artifacts and defenses were powered down.
• Guards were surprised by the returning Maidenfelds and used whispered signals after being ordered to stand down.
• Hedwig advised locating the defensive control room and restoring the traps; Marcus Parnassus, Minfilia’s intelligent Kalassarian skeleton, might understand the systems.
• Servants recognized Laudine and the Baron’s children, while Angel and Gwyniviere were less familiar but visibly noble.
  • In the courtyard, Hellion was probably left behind while Angel and Hilis Brastok prepared to locate Mallow.
• Hedwig levitated outside and, with her sisters, expanded a normally five-mile storm over the roughly two-thousand-square-mile barony.
  • She had allegedly done the same against a fleet.
  • The storm was meant to slow Mallow and disrupt his puppets.
• Robert and Steven led the party into a guarded situation room where Baron Maidenfeld presided over distressed counts, viscounts, and barons.
  • The nobles in attendance were the heads of their respective houses, including Valeriat and Bellacourt. Bellacourt holds baronial rank.
  • Detect Magic found many items but none of the Reformists’ black aura; Divine Sense found no aberrations, only weak lineage and infernal traces.
• Robert introduced the Ranneks as allies, and Steven identified stolen Kalassarian submarines, some purchased from Apgar and some taken.
• Hellion’s mistaken use of ‘Your Grace’ was corrected to ‘my lord.’ A political digression covered Senera’s continued recognition of Apgarian noble blood, the ambitions of former nobles, illegal slavery, and Apgar’s compulsory conscription of magic users.
• Angel then produced the Crown Prince’s seal, granted at Travertine Castle before her mother, the Marchioness, and Gwyniviere.
  • She declared rescuing her father the purpose of hiring the party, and the nobles agreed to hear her plan.
• Her father and guard had reinforced Maidenfeld and Delta troops, most supplied by neighboring Viscount Valeriat, to suppress a Hicklander uprising and capture Victor Woodward.
  • The account of the battle described Victor’s tavern location as a trap: an apparent Glyph of Warding destroyed the building, scattered the bodies, and left Victor’s death unconfirmed.
  • The glyph explanation was challenged on the grounds that it could have been counterspelled; the response was that the surprised court wizard had been unable to react.
  • Later table speculation questioned whether the apparent glyph was merely a drawing or an illusory effect, with black powder from Faltir causing the explosion instead.
  • Behind the apparent glyph, black powder supplied from Faltir caused the explosion. The party had not established how the glyph itself was produced.
• Simultaneous sabotage destroyed four sluice gates and weirs, flooding the fields.
  • Armored soldiers struggled in the water, and enemy attacks stunned the wizards before floating disks could aid evacuation.
  • The account described an organized withdrawal while Marquess Uther was isolated and surrounded.
  • Lord Lance fought elsewhere to liberate a loyal hostage village.
  • The report concluded that insiders had cooperated with the enemy.
• Suspicion fell on Valeriat, who denied Reformist allegiance and displayed piercings taken from supposed Reformist dead.
• The party insisted that the Reformists, present in Senera for perhaps a decade and including Dark Archons tied to the Crown Prince, had engineered the crisis.
  • Entry into Senera now seemed possible for elves, but exit remained barred even to an Eladrin.
  • The argument ended in accusations that Valeriat was responsible.
• The crew cited victories at Tidemark and Eastonton and Garward’s exposure.
  • They explained that ordinary Seneran changelings were not naturally Reformist; many had been abducted and coerced.
  • The quantity of Face-Stealers implied suppliers in Bastion or Corrida.
  • A speaker described forced-reproduction sites, brainwashing, organ harvesting, experiments on elven children, and Eastonton’s yellow-eyed children being fed to a magical aberration.
• An Insight check exposed Baron Bellacourt’s skittishness.
  • He denied the atrocities, sympathized with the Reformists’ opposition to orthodoxy, and denied being an apostate.
• Hellion produced a living parasite recovered from a Rannekford Reformist with Death Ward involved.
  • The group alleged that the church had manipulated the Malthreks for ten years, seeded parasite eggs into food, and used implanted parasites to alter personality, increase susceptibility, and control both hosts and their dependents.

The Baron’s Confession and Divided Missions

• Parasite eggs were reportedly spread through the Fruit Merchants’ Guild into Eastonton, Port Surrey, and an unidentified third region.
  • The group had encountered them in Senera, though not during its Raibon campaign, and described them as hard to kill or extract.
• Pressed by Laudine, Baron Maidenfeld recounted his wife’s infection five years earlier during company business at sea. She had been Master of the Fleet before Steven.
  • The Baron killed her, believing the parasite had replaced her. His claim that she was already dead upon implantation was his interpretation, not an established limit on rescue or healing.
• The Hicklander conflict was increasingly understood as a distraction serving a powerful local actor.
• Eastonton’s paladins and Divine Sense made the Paladinate strategically important, yet one speaker claimed the whole institution was infected and offered proof and passage there.
• Garward’s heroic public image had concealed him even at the Peerage Convocation; his second wife was described ambiguously as both a Reformist and an abused or enslaved victim.
  • A distorted report suggested a traitor had been sent to kill Garward.
• The Duke and Duchess Malthrek were distinguished from the Travertines, where the crew had met the prince fighting Reformists alone.
• Robert was accused of knowing about the threat and doing nothing.
  • The answer was that another man chose to protect Robert’s lands rather than Senera.
• The barony’s restraint derived from an oath after losing the War of Fire and Time: its people would not rise above their station, remained only barons, avoided the war twenty years earlier, and supplied food instead.
  • The nobles reacted with shock.
• The union leader admitted reporting whenever Mallow ‘pulled his strings.’ The questioner asked the Baron what he wanted put to the captive. Questioned about Mallow’s objective, the union leader said Crispin wanted Maidenfeld deaths and wanted the Baron to grieve.
  • Mallow was hunting every surviving member of the Maidenfeld line, even abroad.
  • The union leader did not know whether Mallow possessed an Emerald Shield of Spring shard and called him a god associated with suffering as the condition of pleasure.
  • He admitted withholding workers’ wages and telling them that the lord had cut their pay. The Baron witnessed the interrogation and later corroborated this confession.
• Victor, a local Hicklander leader, had been sacrificed and was treated as dead.
• Helena Cooper, the Baron’s illegitimate daughter, remained alive despite his belief she would never rebel. She was born of his affair with her mother.
• The party questioned whether Bellacourt was being recruited into Reformist service and whether Crispin Mallow was using him.
  • Someone resembling a thin Kados was warned that Mallow might use them as bait and transform them.
• Hellion was reminded that Angel, not he, was supplying the soldiers, while Hellion had another assignment.
• Banter called Volupta an avatar of Arcadia; this was a joke, not a theological claim.
• Under magical suggestion, the union leader was made to drink until unconscious. His confession about withheld Hicklander pay confirmed the grievance behind the needless war.
  • The group asked for the Cooper woman and warned Bellacourt that Mallow might have attached a controlling string to him.
  • Guards were told to watch Bellacourt and detain him in quarters, not the dungeons.
  • The group then arranged for a sex worker, paid by Hellion, to exhaust Bellacourt, with pills, an Herb of the Harem, and a flower also discussed. Hellion proposed the arrangement.
• The party needed to locate Lance, Gwyniviere’s brother.
  • A tentative division sent Oren with Angel against Mallow and Gwyniviere with a companion to rescue Lance, while Steven offered his casting ability.
• Hedwig offered to remain as reinforcement and objected when treated as troublesome.
• Dean and Robert were invited into private discussion, but Gwyniviere demanded inclusion.
• The discussion explained local elven despair: Feywild elves may choose death, return to a tree, and be reborn, while elves trapped in this land can live endlessly, die, or go mad from unchanging surroundings and reflections of the past.

Robert’s Children and the Watching Doll

• Angel remained determined to see the Feywild despite its hostility toward celestials, dangerous creatures, and capricious Archfey, trusting Sir Brastok and her own teleportation magic.
• A twenty-year-old noblewoman explained that Seneran noblewomen generally marry around seventeen or eighteen and cannot inherit unless every male heir is dead; commerce and children provide alternative influence.
• A foreign woman said women could inherit in her homeland.
  • When she joked that she might be a Face-Stealer or changeling, Steven replied that his Lantern of Revealing showed she was something else.
  • Her identity as a hag and her successful teleportation into magically restricted Maiden’s Field surprised the nobles.
• One noble asked Hedwig to release them after Angel resolved their liege’s crisis.
• Their token forces might also have served as spies.
  • Having expected magically powerless commoners, the nobles initially felt confident, then withdrew after threats to their floodworks; Reformist preachers were meanwhile infiltrating settlements by offering sanctuary.
• Count Malris supported sending Orthodox investigators even if Count Risen did not. Their territorial rivalry resurfaced, alongside accusations that each flooded the other’s basin with agents.
• The party withdrew to Robert’s city chambers.
  • Paintings showed Robert and Laudine, the furniture had been rearranged for an unnamed pair, and Gwyniviere followed for gossip and concern.
  • Their relationship was an open secret whose public disclosure created political danger.
  • Hedwig’s interrogations were considered highly effective.
• A duelist received fifteen minutes to obtain armor and a sword, while the teleporter requested personal objects belonging to endangered children.
  • Their parent supplied a travel notebook with the son’s charcoal pencil and a pressed flower made by the daughter.
• Robert loved a common woman but could not marry her under Maidenfeld tradition.
  • His political marriage protected both parties while the spouse pursued a commercial empire; it was consummated, though Robert was not her preferred type.
  • Jokes about producing one or two children collided with the practical problem that a visible pregnancy would require recognition of a Maidenfeld heir.
• Gwyniviere rejected carrying a child for five months only to surrender it to a hag.
• Laudine described Robert as a cherished friend and caring father, not a romantic match. She had allowed her mother, Marchioness Maria Rannek, to believe theirs was a love match to preserve her support for the marriage.
  • Any child Laudine bore would carry the Maidenfeld name, though a paramour’s child remained hypothetical.
• The group distinguished dangers tied to the bloodline from those attached merely to the famous name and prioritized saving Robert’s articulate children.
• Discussion challenged the Maidenfeld spice monopoly, perfume business, routes, alleged lies, and possible violence or slave trading, without proof.
• Robert returned in leathers with a rapier.
  • The target Hicklander leader was Helena Cooper.
• Hedwig was asked to teleport rather than consume a scroll.
  • Jane and Jennifer were retrieved from mercenaries by Hellion, who carried them on his shoulders.
  • Hedwig formed her teleportation triangle; Gwyniviere stayed behind to help Lance.
  • Hedwig transported the rescuers with an unusually aristocratic demeanor.
• They arrived at an understated but costly cottage where Robert’s children played.
  • The children embraced their father.
• A natural-twenty Perception check revealed divination magic inside a doll named Anna.
  • Dispel Magic ended the active effect, but a token remained hidden inside; the doll was placed in a bag of holding while the child was reassured that Hellion would heal it.
• Hellion told the children about Soleil, the crew’s vampire baby whose Apgarian name means sun, and their giant baker Sensodyne.
• The children’s mother had gone to a nearby bakery.
  • As the party followed, the perceptive traveler detected two hidden followers.
  • Hellion suspected assassins and urged everyone to act naturally, retrieve the mother, and leave.

The Bakery Rescue and Helena’s Intelligence

• Bakery windows shattered as the party approached.
• A Face Step carried one rescuer inside, where two new attackers held a woman bound and blindfolded.
  • One captor opened with Dominate Person, but the target was immune to charm.
  • The rescuer exchanged places with the captive, putting her beyond the attackers’ reach.
  • The acting monk smashed the captors’ heads together, stunned one, and roundhouse-kicked the other.
• Outside, Robert fought one assailant for twenty-seven damage while another restrained Laudine.
  • She escaped by driving a high-heeled stiletto into his foot and shielded the children.
• The remaining bakery attacker used Greater Invisibility.
  • Repeated Face Steps and teleportation extracted the wife and carried two enemies back to the keep.
  • Guards seized them before Hellion and another fighter knocked them down.
• Examination of Anna established that the hag-cursed doll contained one of several tokens linked to a scrying pool.
  • Its divination had already been dispelled; a woman cut open the doll, removed the token, showed it to the child, and secured it in her purse.
• Helena Cooper arrived while Hedwig introduced herself and Hellion as the family’s rescuers.
  • The rescued wife gave her name as Annika Smith; Hellion apologized, then embarrassed everyone with a remark about her post-childbirth waist.
  • Annika and the children were brought before the children’s grandfather, whom the shy children gradually accepted.
• Helena, identified as a local Hicklander leader, received a seat despite class-based objections.
  • She was questioned over a leaked secret.
  • The party suspected that a distrusted union leader was manipulated and had bribed someone Helena trusted.
  • She was promised cooperation without torture.
• Another participant denied supporting the Reformists, blamed them for the war, said warnings had been ignored, and reported recently capturing the union leader.
  • Hedwig named Crispin Mallow and the Reformists as the true enemies.
• The party cited its friendships with Malthrek Hicklanders and Master Kelthyr, though they had never met him.
  • Angel introduced herself as Kelthyr’s only student and explained her mission to save her father.
• Helena’s information placed Kelthyr reinforcing his brother at Thrantorbury, surprising those unaware he had a brother.
  • The players knew Kelthyr and Merlion Dragonheart were stepbrothers, but the brother’s identity was not disclosed in the conversation.
  • Angel was told to take charge of the Ranneks.
  • Spooksy was sent from the room.
• The party presented evidence that the union leader had withheld wages and overworked people; the Baron confirmed his confession and Mallow’s threat against his family.
• Helena knew Lance from newspapers but had not knowingly met him, raising the possibility that he was disguised.
  • A man calling himself Rance had asked questions and been directed to Victor before the flood.
• Helena said the Malthrek Hicklanders never wanted war and that properly issued pay had been stolen in transit.
  • Food brought by new recruits had made her violently ill while others kept eating, suggesting contamination or compulsion.
• The party argued that the Reformists manufactured the war to pacify soldiers, advance toward Maiden’s Port, and seize Maiden’s Field’s fleet.
• Helena agreed to guide them to an emergency gathering place and then to a seaside cove formerly used for black-powder deliveries; Kelthyr allegedly had proof of Reformist involvement.
• Before leaving, the hags reiterated that they did not accept men, prompting recollection of Minfilia, Oscar, Cletus, and a gender-changing belt.
• The Baron announced the party’s departure and ordered guards to identify infiltrators by mismatched legs or backward, ill-fitting boots.
  • Angel joined because Lance might be at the destination.
  • Rance was mocked as an implausibly minor alteration of Lance.
• The group chose three casters and Sir Brastok as its strong fighter, bringing Malmann to use Divine Sense to check people they encountered for parasites.
  • Sir Malmann introduced himself as Erik Malmann.
  • Hedwig and Angel followed Helena while Erik took the lead.
  • Helena explained that commoners may bear occupational surnames such as Cooper.
  • Sweets and food were requested for the children before departure.

Rance Revealed

• The party warned Helena that Mallow was exterminating the relevant noble bloodline, including children outside Senera.
  • She resented the inherited danger and explained that Cooper was both her surname and her craft: making barrels and casks.
• Remembering a brazier left burning while steaming staves, she accepted magical transport to her combined house and cooperage.
  • The brazier was handled, although the staves were probably ruined.
  • The spell disassembled and reformed travelers and could use Helena as a conduit to an unfamiliar destination.
• She next guided the group near a former private retreat that had become an explosives depot.
  • They arrived among coconut trees, advanced stealthily, found the site abandoned, and recovered black powder.
• An armored man there resisted recognition through magic: Angel could not place his familiar face, Hedwig could not focus on his identifying armor, and his paper mustache looked perfectly legitimate.
  • He introduced himself as Rance, one letter removed from Lance.
• Rain finally loosened the mustache, causing Angel to perceive her brother while believing Rance had vanished.
  • She embraced him, and the party explained where he had been found.
• Lance reported that Castle Rannek had been infiltrated, emptied, and stripped of its court wizards.
  • The enemy had copied Marchioness Maria Rannek’s face and used code words.
  • Lance had faked his disappearance to work covertly.
• Angel described two sources of information together: Locate Creature had given her Uther’s general direction, while her knowledge of Crispin beating him came from Lotan’s memories. The spell had not shown her that scene or established Uther’s precise location.
  • Direct casting of Scrying does not work in Bastion Falls, though certain magical items allow scrying; the reason remains unknown.
• Because wet black powder could be dried, Hedwig used Freedom of the Waves to engulf and neutralize it.
• Lance said Mallow frequently attended Hicklander meetings, but locations changed after he went undercover; a prior site had flooded and the replacement might be concealed.
• Angel cast Locate Creature for her father.
  • Carrying his signet ring, she received a bearing away from the keep toward the port around Maiden’s Port.
  • She summarized her service to the Bishop of Rannek, the Crown Prince, and Hilis Brastok.
• Talk of fugitives Minfilia and Uncle Oscar prompted Hedwig to defend Minfilia as one of her people.
  • The party described Stacy, the elderly Malthrek wizard merged with dragon material, and showed Lance a recovered scale.
  • Sir Brastok examined Lance for Reformist or Face-Stealer signs; the clipped result appeared negative.
• Lance refused to enter the keep because it would break his cover.
  • After failed Wisdom rolls, the disguise reasserted itself and he became Rance Lanik, supposedly Lord Lance’s helper.
  • Angel left him a flan, Hedwig provided wine, and Rance promised Lance would return.
  • The group planned to tell Gwyniviere only that her brother was safe and undercover because she was considered a gossip.
  • Rance glued down his mustache and claimed to be an outsider working with Lance.
• The company still wanted to meet other Hicklander leaders and stop the war; one former leader said others had shunned them for opposing continued conflict.
• Conversation then turned to Hedwig’s crew.
  • Miya Campbell was called a rival and praised for Eastonton.
  • She was identified as Dorothy Marie Campbell, a powerful, playful Hag of Hama connected to Highbury nobility.
  • Participants disputed rumors that Miya used ghostwriters for her magical columns.
  • Rance eventually identified himself as a Legally Bare ‘man of culture.’ A speaker claimed friendship with Mystine Nightingale.
• Hedwig announced a crew contest to locate Maerwen Lunartear, a Seneran elf, with first-class merchandise as the prize.
  • She accepted Angel into the crew because of Angel’s ties to Minfilia, Miya, Luana, and Hedwig’s friends.
  • Angel teamed with Sir Brastok.
  • A map, Luana’s northern lead, and a weak resemblance to Skelwick people pointed toward an unidentified northern elven settlement.
  • Someone copied Rance’s answer.
  • The scene closed with more Legally Bare discussion and mention of a forthcoming magazine for women.

Tree Stride, Victor, and the Road to Bastion

• The discussion introduced Rum Boys, a women’s adult magazine.
• The party reaffirmed that it would return, contact the relevant Hicklanders, and end the war without yielding to Mallow, whose desperation might increase.
  • Before teleporting, a woman collected wet black powder into a sack.
  • The group agreed to regroup at the keep; joining the Hicklanders against Malthrek was mentioned.
• Master Kelthyr and Luana had reportedly led the rescue of the Duke and Duchess.
• Angel had paid mercenaries one hundred gold and still owed nine hundred toward a bounty.
  • Recent Reformist hosts had been disabled rather than killed, but destroying their parasites might count; parasites removed from the Duchess and Luke produced a joking two-thousand-gold calculation.
• Hedwig warned Angel that Bastion was a hellhole avoided even by her crew.
  • Maiden’s Field had closed its routes after the Fall of Bastion produced a massive Orb of Power.
  • Angel nevertheless wanted to investigate because her dreams showed paradise.
• Sandor’s former Sea Crawlers might provide passage.
  • A route through Calamutes and Corrida was rejected because Somme allegedly kills spellcasters on sight.
  • Trajan might know a teleportation destination near Bastion.
• Angel insisted her friends would accompany her, and Sir Brastok promised to follow.
  • Rance claimed most Hicklanders accepted his disguise because they were illiterate.
  • Angel planned the Feywild after Bastion and was compared with Inez Rannek and her paper knight.
• The company teleported to the keep, finding Hellion meditating in heavy rain.
  • After resisting the disguise magic, Hellion saw Rance’s paper mustache, remembered Lance’s earlier guard disguise, and played along.
  • Hellion and Sir Brastok teased Angel and Hedwig for accepting it.
• Klaus was safe in the kennel after eating Auron’s food.
  • Hellion asked Gwyniviere to dry him with her stones.
• Hedwig then convened a meeting about the Marquis.
  • Findings gathered with Lance identified Crispin as the instigator moving among multiple fronts.
  • Rather than proving duplication, his speed could partly be explained by Tree Stride between matching trees, which Hedwig illustrated with Major Image.
  • Crispin had allegedly acquired the ability by merging with the Heart of an Urdefolcin.
• The group distinguished Clone from Simulacrum and said the Arch Lich Souveran Rothchild could create simulacra.
  • Strandiz and Emily had killed a snow-melting simulacrum of Isana Walburton.
  • The estate in Hugo was Walburton Mansion, now legally owned by Hedwig, who purchased it from Hugo’s local government after repossession for unpaid real-estate taxes. The estate stood above Kalassarian ruins, accessible through a complicated mechanism.
  • Hedwig described Isana, the Reformist bishop in Sanery, as Souveran Rothchild’s illegitimate daughter and as having many copies across the continent. These were reports, not a resolution of the original Isana’s status.
• Lady Hedwig relayed Deathengel’s claim that the real Isana was dead and the encountered one a clone.
  • Deathengel was also said to have blocked planar travel, prompting argument over the reality of the Feywild, Shadowfell, Raven Queen, and other realms.
• Returning to the war, Rance reported stopping a culvert explosion in Linnea but missing a larger assault.
  • Victor had been their only route to Hicklander leaders.
  • His death remained disputed between unconfirmed explosion and sacrifice.
  • Hedwig suggested Mallow could rebuild him from scattered parts.
  • Angel cited Kethbjorn, whose face, voice, magic, and transplanted heart survived bodily reconstruction.
• The party rejected Mallow’s claim to godhood and called him a serial killer.
• Feywild claims that Celestia was mythical were rejected.
  • Angel, Sapphire, and Jessica were supposedly from Celestia due to their nature. If Angel had ever been there, it was not in her current human incarnation; no prior visit or existence there was established.
  • Angel believed Celestia blessed her mother and family and brought her safely into the world despite a pregnancy that court wizards and sisters considered dangerous.
  • Gwyniviere had been the youngest sibling before Angel and remembered treating her like a doll.
• Sapphire and Andrew were expected to address the Hicklanders, possibly with a Maidenfeld woman.
  • A revelation that the acknowledged father was not the mother’s first husband led Angel to ask about multiple husbands.
  • The party invoked Oberon’s secret offspring as precedent and concluded that it needed an elven community.
• A final aside concerned a small game with Sir Brastok and an anchor aboard a ship as the prize.

The Bearing Toward Maiden’s Port

• Sympathetic Reformists had taken displaced families to Goat’s Head at Maiden’s Field’s edge.
  • Hogshead is a different settlement, on the border of Verdiflora; the discussion of Hogshead does not rename Goat’s Head.
  • Hedwig’s storm had delayed the opposition.
  • A father and daughter there had undergone personality changes, with the rebellious daughter becoming docile.
• Hellion recounted killing a non-Face-Stealer captive in an earlier session, mentioning a hollow tree. Gwyniviere responded that he did not have to recount it and that it was horrific.
  • The August 15 account describes an operative’s throat being cut beside a hollow dead willow and his body placed inside it.
  • The operative had described what was done to the daughter in front of her father, who struggled to contain his anger and cried.
• Reformist manipulation was compared with Queen Valdas, Queen of Mirrors, and the Crimson Court; an earlier appeal concerning Valdas had been ignored.
  • Valdas was the former Archfey of Spring, killed by Somme Privatea and Rosy Conifer.
• Hellion described elves in general as peaceful, nature-aligned, and favored by their Archfey.
  • He described Senera’s evil as poisoning the elves living there, likening their prolonged exposure to swallowing poison every day. The exchange invoked two thousand years, without settling whether that span was literal or figurative.
• The Reformist Church was connected to the Fall of Bastion, variously dated thirty or fifty years earlier.
  • Rumor made Souveran Rothchild the only person able to enter and leave Bastion’s Orb of Power.
  • Angel took that as proof she could enter, but the issue was deferred.
• The party resolved to approach Hicklander settlements individually, since magical manipulation might already have spread.
• Locate Creature pointed east or northeast from the keep toward Maiden’s Port and the river delta of Maiden’s Bay.
  • Land swallowed during the ancient elf-Hick war might conceal submerged ruins.
  • Man-made floodworks begun by one family and expanded by generations of Ranneks calm the bay.
  • Maiden’s Port was the only known establishment in that direction.
• Angel’s father might be in underwater ruins, a pocket dimension, or aboard a ship that departed the port.
  • Kelthyr’s submarine carried only two, though the group had a boat.
• The party reasoned that Mallow wanted something Angel possessed, possibly Emerald Shield shards, and might also target local spellcasters.
  • The hags might hinder his puppets.
• Discussion returned to Mallow’s hatred: despite opportunities during the flood, he had not killed the father, and another brother had been sent to Maiden’s Port.
  • Tristan’s absence and the discovery of a half-sister raised further questions.
  • The group considered a magical needle, a crown-related hag bargain, the Heart of the Urdefolcin, and Hellion’s multiple deals.
  • Repeated trips to Faltir and explosives made from salt were also linked to the hostile man.
• To locate Mallow, the party proposed using the distinctive thread with which he stitched victims.
  • One spool, still carrying biological material, might suffice; Mystine Nightingale had supplied relevant knowledge.
  • Angel accepted the strain because she also wanted to save Sandor and the court wizards.
• Hellion and Gwyniviere went to the dungeons for thread.
  • Hellion lent Gwyniviere a focus-activated Mage Hand rune; she practiced on a chandelier.
  • They considered removing material from the drunken union leader but abandoned that target after a Medicine result of twenty-nine showed alcohol-thinned blood would make the procedure dangerously messy.
• Conversation en route covered Robert’s love, their mother’s preference for love matches, Laudine’s perfumes, and an eladrin’s ability to read emotions.
  • Hellion explained his eladrin ability to read emotions: he could perceive Oren’s brooding but could not read Trajan’s emotions. Gwyniviere declined his offer to disclose Oren’s feelings, saying Oren would not want that.
  • Oren was described as continually reinventing himself.
  • Iris Blanchemont avoided mortal attachments because of inevitable loss.
• The group distinguished pain inflicted to save Stacy from the current procedure to save a family.
• Gwyniviere used a hobby knife to begin extracting thread from an altered prisoner.
  • Magical light aided her; Erik Malmann delayed healing until the threads were free.
  • Hellion calmly gave medical instructions, applied pressure, and revealed a medicine kit.
  • The biological residue survived cleaning concerns well enough that an Arcana result near twenty suggested the thread might work for Locate Creature, though contamination, age, and difficulty remained risks.
  • The discussion recalled Sister Pira’s healing during the earlier procedure in which Gwyniviere helped dissect the dragon parts from Stacy Cartwright.

A Second Locate Creature and Departure

• A Medicine examination found that Mallow’s careful suturing and rerouted veins had kept the switched legs alive despite incomplete attachment.
  • The examiner rapidly resutured the opening while Erik Malmann healed it.
• Surgeon, dressmaker, bookbinder, leatherworker, and horticulturist were all suggested as possible sources of Mallow’s skill, but none was established.
  • Some interpreted his work as grafting living creature parts onto himself; others thought that granted an insane killer too much credit.
  • Angel’s role in his plans remained uncertain.
• The extracted threads were cleaned with Prestidigitation, stored in a flask-like container, and packed away.
  • A non-caster used a Prestidigitation rune to clean their hands, prompting admiration and concern about carrying too many runes.
• Upstairs, Angel played ball and doubted an unidentified plan, but the group promised to follow through and trusted Hedwig’s crew.
• Friends named in the conversation included Luana, Miya, Maerwen, and Miss Tiffany.
  • Emily, known as the “Princess of Anasai” from her guest segment in Legally Bare’s first issue, was unavailable in the Malthreks; Luana was with Kelthyr in Senera and was praised as editor-in-chief, while Sapphire and Trajan read fan mail at Castle Malthrek.
• Miya’s birthday fell two days after another participant’s, inspiring plans for a week-long joint celebration involving Lord Branrum and jokes about Oscar, Branrum, or Minfilia hiding in a cake.
  • Concerns that Oscar or Minfilia might exploit the younger speaker were rejected, along with a proposed painting session.
• A card game followed among Hedwig, Helena, the Baron, Steven, and others, wagering wine, whiskey, rum, Dubreuil cognac, and Rosenkrantz pink.
  • Corrected totals were twenty for Helena, four for the Baron, and fourteen for Steven.
  • Rare bottles had been reserved for a wedding, soirée, and the Crown Prince.
  • Another participant offered aged cider from a first command and toasted an orchard lost to flooding.
  • Hedwig was criticized for drunken gambling, and a man recalled carrying members of her coven from fighting arenas.
• Feywild reminiscences covered satyrs, pervasive magic, and the apparent absence of human settlements except Rebecca. The discussion also turned to Holt Settlement in the Feydark, which conceals the entrance to Jing Shen Jiang, a city founded by changelings where shapeshifters of all kinds can live in peace.
  • The group, including Hedwig, believed Holt’s apparent humans were changelings or doppelgangers in disguise. Hedwig had not accompanied the party that visited; that party had gone straight to Jing Shen Jiang rather than exploring Holt.
• Observers noted that Angel had become slightly taller and more mature while also growing more responsive to adult and noble responsibilities.
• Outside with Hellion and Gwyniviere, Angel cast Locate Creature using the biological thread as a conduit.
  • Guidance and Bardic Inspiration raised the relevant Arcana result to twenty-eight.
  • The thread pointed in the same direction as her father, toward Maiden’s Field, and Steven fixed the bearing with compass and astrolabe.
• The quarry might still be moving; Hedwig’s storm could be slowing his luggage, Tree Stride, teleportation, or travel through matching Urdefolcin fragments.
• Oren proposed teleporting ahead to intercept him.
  • One man stayed to protect the Baron and the children.
  • The rescue party included Angel, Oren, Sir Brastok, Gwyniviere, and Lance disguised as Rance. Malmann was asked to join, followed by an agreement to come along.
• Hellion encouraged the exhausted Angel, who repeated that she would save her father.
  • Someone offered to carry a tired caster; Lesser Restoration was applied to a man who said he was not very tired.
• Gwyniviere was reminded of a submission deadline and promised a later painting session.
• The party walked toward the teleportation circle, discussing Maiden’s Port, healing, and which company or keep circle should serve as anchor.
  • The destination anchor was the Maidenfeld Spice Company’s circle. Steven would accompany them briefly so their arrival would not alarm those there, then teleport back.
  • Dimitri was assigned to guard the company’s circle and facilitate its teleportation traffic.
  • Hedwig, Jane, and Jennifer offered to stand by at Maiden’s Port with teleportation and healing support.
  • Lance traveled with the rescue party disguised as Rance. Angel remained fooled: she believed Rance was going and Lance was staying behind. Observers who failed the Moustasche’s save rationalized the concealed person’s departure and the disguise identity’s sudden arrival, rather than recognizing a transformation.
• Playful rankings involved an unnamed former number one, Oscar’s purchases under Benfilio’s name, and the Great Erected One in third place.
  • Oran was proposed as a fan base for a possibly elven woman.
• Angel was urged not to leave everything to him, with Strandiz cited as an old but capable model.
  • Claims that General Strandiz was merely a codename were attempts to preserve his cover, not genuine uncertainty about his identity.
  • Strandiz met Emily on his first Feywild visit, and an Archfey sent her with the group. He later got Emily pregnant; wild magic duplicated her as Emma and randomly transferred the pregnancy to Emma.
  • During the Parade of the Spirits, members of Gerta Moon and the Rozenmaiden crew were displaced. Emma pushed Emily out of the transport’s path because Emily carried a Shadowfell-connected box that would endanger her and might cause a catastrophe. Emma went in her place.
  • Strandiz believed both women carried his child and wanted to love both. Emma wanted him exclusively; after their return, Emily and Strandiz parted amicably. He will marry Emma, rather than having already married her. The subsequent ancient-vampire remark refers to Narmaya, not Strandiz.
• Someone received permission to visit the Scarlet afterward.
• The group teleported, ending the session.

Open Hooks

The Rescue and Mallow’s Pursuit

• Uther’s exact location and condition remain unknown. The bearings point toward Maiden’s Port and Maiden’s Bay; underwater ruins, a ship, and a pocket dimension were possibilities, not discoveries.
• The thread-assisted search produced a bearing matching the search for Uther. Whether the party can intercept Mallow, and whether the quarry is moving or using the thread as a lure, remain open.
• Sandor, the court wizards, and other missing allies still need to be found and rescued.
• What Mallow wants from Angel, including any interest in her Emerald Shield of Spring shards or celestial nature, remains speculation.
• According to the union leader, Mallow wants the Maidenfeld line dead and the Baron to suffer. The comparison to grieving a wife concerns the Baron’s bereavement, not a wife of Mallow’s or a specific grievance against the Baron’s wife. The underlying history, the full reach of Mallow’s revenge, and Tristan’s whereabouts remain unresolved.
• Victor Woodward’s fate remains disputed. The explosion report did not confirm his death; later claims of sacrifice and Hedwig’s suggestion that Mallow might rebuild him do not settle it.
• Mallow’s rank, hierarchy, magical needle, grafting limits, and full relationship to Auraxx and the Heart of the Urdefolcin remain open. Tree Stride was offered as an explanation for his movements, not proof that he never uses other means or duplicates.
• The effect of Hedwig’s storm on Mallow’s movement and puppets remains to be tested.

The Maidenfelds, Hags, and the Veil

• The exact scope and loopholes of the local hag restrictions remain unclear. Hedwig and her sisters successfully entered Maiden’s Field; that outcome does not establish unrestricted access for all hags or explain every restriction on magic.
• Why the veil’s intended restrictions fail, and why entry and exit appear to differ for elves and eladrin, remain open. Keep the veil question distinct from the local hag bargains.
• Hellion’s firstborn alliance remains an ongoing obligation. Its core offer is established; no additional delivery timetable or custody conditions are known.
• The hags’ trapped souls, possible purchase of their freedom, and relationship to the Mother remain unresolved, as do the bloodline bargain’s wider consequences.
• The secret spice source and its connection to Surrey’s Ear, the family’s guarded trade routes, and allegations of coercion or violence in that trade remain unproven.
• The Green Lord’s history and the limits of celestial influence in the Feywild remain subjects of disagreement.
• Tiphanie’s wartime identity and deeper history, the Thralmals infant and the sisters’ authority, and the implications of Emily’s hag status remain open.

Reformist Infiltration and the War

• Responsibility for the floodworks sabotage, the full chain of stolen wages and bribery, and the allegiances of Valeriat and Bellacourt remain unresolved.
• The Baron’s and other nobles’ degrees of coercion, magical control, parasitism, or willing cooperation are not interchangeable. The accounts of threats and withheld pay do not settle every person’s condition.
• The bakery attackers’ orders, their knowledge, and the relationship of the hidden followers to the wider operation remain to be investigated.
• The controller and location of the scrying pool, and the placement of its other tokens, remain unknown. The implication is that the watchers are Reformists or operate within their sphere of influence; their identities and exact relationship to the Church are unconfirmed. Removing Anna’s token did not identify the watcher.
• Helena’s illness after eating the recruits’ food suggests contamination; the substance and the reasons others continued eating are not established.
• The third region receiving parasite eggs, the extent of infection in Eastonton’s institutions, and the full scope of the Reformists’ long infiltration remain open.
• Reformist influence over the company offices, Mayonne, Sanery, Apgar, Turain, and Poasah’s Thirteen requires further investigation; reports and suspicions should not become blanket findings.
• Balimbano’s reported survival, the displayed body, and the political consequences of producing him alive remain unresolved.
• The displaced families at Goat’s Head and the personality changes there warrant follow-up.
• Whether the keep’s Kalassarian defenses can be restored, and how Marcus Parnassus could assist, remain practical questions.
• The planned Hicklander contacts, possible work by Sapphire and Andrew, and efforts to end the war remain unfinished.

Other Continuing Threads

• The group suspects Holt’s apparent human residents are changelings or doppelgangers in disguise, but did not explore the settlement. Its residents’ identities and the origin of its reputation as a human settlement remain unverified by the group.
• The identities and status of the Isana Walburton simulacra remain an in-world mystery. Reports of the original’s death, clones, and simulacra require reconciliation, not automatic acceptance.
• Maerwen Lunartear’s whereabouts and the northern elven settlement remain unknown; Angel and Sir Brastok have joined Hedwig’s search contest.
• A viable route into Bastion, the truth of its apparent paradise in Angel’s dreams, and the rumor that Souveran Rothchild alone can cross its Orb of Power remain open.
• Angel still intends to visit the Feywild; its dangers and the travel restrictions remain relevant.
• The outstanding bounties, the publications’ promised support, and possible future gatherings remain ongoing commitments. An outstanding bounty on Oscar does not itself establish a new Senera sighting.
• The fifth orb variety discussed at the sanctuary remains unidentified in the account.
• The secret Hicklander assignment, Garward’s second wife’s circumstances, and the late parentage disclosure remain incompletely understood.