The Vengeful Recap 2026-09-19

Previously, in The Vengeful…

The search for Uther Rannek brought Angel and her companions back to the Maidenfeld Spice Company. Dimitri checked Steven’s codes, accepted his assurances, and discovered that the visitors were not the most alarming people inside the building.

Near the elevator stood a robed figure with his feet switched.

A Wall of ForceWall of ForceLevel 5 · Evocation1 action · 120 ft. · 10 minuteV, S, M (a pinch of powder made by crushing a clear gemstone)An invisible wall of force springs into existence at a point you choose within range. The wall appears in any orientation you choose, as a horizontal or vertical barrier or at an angle. It can be free floating or resting on a solid surface. You can form it into a hemispherical dome or a sphere with a radius of up to 10 feet, or you can shape a flat surface made up of ten 10-foot-by-10-foot panels. Each panel must be contiguous with another panel. In any form, the wall is 1/4 inch thick. It lasts for the duration. If the wall cuts through a creature's space when it appears, the creature is pushed to one side of the wall (your choice which side). Nothing can physically pass through the wall. It is immune to all damage and can't be dispelled by dispel magic. A disintegrate spell destroys the wall instantly, however. The wall also extends into the Ethereal Plane, blocking ethereal travel through the wall. contained him and sent his thrown needles rebounding. Then Gwyniviere opened the elevator to reveal two more altered Maidenfelds. The company’s defenses had already been breached. Below, its people were fighting others of their own kind.

The rescuers chose the fifth-floor window.

Rance broke the glass, Feather FallFeather FallLevel 1 · Transmutation1 reaction · 60 ft. · 1 minuteV, M (a small feather or a piece of down)Choose up to five falling creatures within range. A falling creature's rate of descent slows to 60 feet per round until the spell ends. If the creature lands before the spell ends, it takes no falling damage and can land on its feet, and the spell ends for that creature. carried the escape, and Brastok dove after Angel with his hammer. A butcher’s hook trailing something like sinew narrowly missed Rance. Whatever safety the company had promised, there was little of it left indoors.

Angel’s search spell led onward to the harbor. Guards lay fallen, and crates were being loaded aboard a ship. The bearing did not tell her which box held her father.

ShatterShatterLevel 2 · Evocation1 action · 60 ft. · InstantaneousV, S, M (a chip of mica)A sudden loud ringing noise, painfully intense, erupts from a point of your choice within range. Each creature in a 10-foot-radius sphere centered on that point must make a Constitution saving throw. A creature takes 3d8 thunder damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. A creature made of inorganic material such as stone, crystal, or metal has disadvantage on this saving throw. A nonmagical object that isn't being worn or carried also takes the damage if it's in the spell's area. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 3rd level or higher, the damage increases by 3d8 for each slot level above 2nd. opened several at once.

Inside were metal cages, prisoners—and Uther.

Gwyniviere went for the locks while the others fought to reach and protect her. Hooks dragged at the rescuers; stitched enemies crowded the cages. Brastok exchanged places with Gwyniviere to put himself between her and an attacker. Rance fought beside her and broke a padlock when more delicate methods failed. Angel healed prisoners, slowed the enemies aboard the ship, and suggested that one particularly dangerous opponent take its friends swimming.

It obliged, with more force than its companion would have preferred.

The party freed Uther and checked him for seams and signs of substitution. But Angel went farther, flying into the ship’s hold. There she found more chained prisoners and a submarine unlike the earlier designs they knew. As the vessel moved, she began freeing captives and helping those who could still help one another.

Then she used the recovered thread to search for Mallow.

The spell found him at a distance, lost him, and found him much nearer. A prisoner carrying a strange thread injured himself; his body burst apart, and a tall man emerged. With threats against Angel’s companions and family, the captor forced her into the submarine. The apparent corpse worked the lever that dropped them into Maiden’s Bay.

Underwater, Mallow described his puppets and strings. He threatened the castle and Angel’s mother, and claimed that the Maidenfelds possessed a hidden key.

Angel tried to reach someone beneath those threats.

She let him taste her celestial blood and silently prayed for his freedom from curses and bargains. Golden scales appeared. Her blood broke Mallow’s fey deals and curses; the people under his control collapsed. His body began a transformation it could not complete, scales and forming wings falling away.

Auraxx emerged—a gold dragon whose soul Angel had freed.

In thanks, he offered her a boon. Angel did not ask merely to escape. She wanted the horrors undone. Auraxx warned that reversing everything could break reality again.

Instead, she asked for a childhood.

The boon returned Crispin Mallow to ten years old, with his memories up to that age and none from afterward. His magic and unnatural attachments were removed. Auraxx had warned that his nature would remain damaged; Angel chose to take responsibility for raising him anyway.

That left her holding an unconscious boy inside a moving submarine she did not know how to operate.

Hellion’s answer to her SendingSendingLevel 3 · Evocation1 action · Unlimited · 1 roundV, S, M (a short piece of fine copper wire)You send a short message of twenty-five words or less to a creature with which you are familiar. The creature hears the message in its mind, recognizes you as the sender if it knows you, and can answer in a like manner immediately. The spell enables creatures with Intelligence scores of at least 1 to understand the meaning of your message. You can send the message across any distance and even to other planes of existence, but if the target is on a different plane than you, there is a 5 chance that the message doesn't arrive. brought news of attacks on Castle Rannek. At Maidenfeld Keep, Nick of Bede’s supposed reinforcements had turned against the defenders. Angel found the submarine’s brake, but its magical propulsion kept driving it toward a reef. Dispel MagicDispel MagicLevel 3 · Abjuration1 action · 120 ft. · InstantaneousV, SChoose one creature, object, or magical effect within range. Any spell of 3rd level or lower on the target ends. For each spell of 4th level or higher on the target, make an ability check using your spellcasting ability. The DC equals 10 + the spell's level. On a successful check, the spell ends. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 4th level or higher, you automatically end the effects of a spell on the target if the spell's level is equal to or less than the level of the spell slot you used. stopped that problem and began another: the vessel failed and flooded.

She carried Crispin through Dimension DoorDimension DoorLevel 4 · Conjuration1 action · 500 ft. · InstantaneousVYou teleport yourself from your current location to any other spot within range. You arrive at exactly the spot desired. It can be a place you can see, one you can visualize, or one you can describe by stating distance and direction, such as "200 feet straight downward" or "upward to the northwest at a 45-degree angle, 300 feet." You can bring along objects as long as their weight doesn't exceed what you can carry. You can also bring one willing creature of your size or smaller who is carrying gear up to its carrying capacity. The creature must be within 5 feet of you when you cast this spell. If you would arrive in a place already occupied by an object or a creature, you and any creature traveling with you each take 4d6 force damage, and the spell fails to teleport you. into the sea.

Angel survived the ascent, kept them afloat, and contacted Brastok. Hedwig used her familiarity with Angel to reach her; three women appeared and brought Angel and Crispin back. Brastok embraced her. Jane dried her. At the harbor, Gwyniviere held their unconscious father while Lance freed prisoners.

Uther was alive. Angel was back. Mallow’s control had broken.

There was still a ship full of people to retrieve, a castle full of wounded, and a child who would wake without knowing what his older self had done.

Hedwig undertook the ship’s recovery. The rescuers brought Uther through shelter and treatment before returning to Castle Rannek. There they found casualties preserved for revival, healers working through their exhaustion, and Sandor unconscious after saving Trajan during the siege. He had returned to fight for the castle; how he had escaped captivity and Mallow’s control remained unexplained.

The immediate battles at the castle and keep ended. Most of the castle’s attackers had been controlled by Mallow. When they collapsed, those still acting freely fled or were captured. Nick of Bede also appeared to have been controlled, though that did not settle every question about his allegiances. Ordinary followers had gone into battle under leaders whose choices were not their own.

Recovery demanded distinctions the fighting had allowed little time to make.

Angel reunited with her mother beside Uther, and explained what she had done. The family weighed responsibility, justice for Mallow’s victims, and the work his transformation had not repaired. Sister Pira’s pool offered a possible treatment for afflicted survivors, but its water worked there: the patients would have to be brought to it.

When Crispin woke, he feared his father and aunt had sold him.

He expected pursuit, disliked being touched, and wanted to leave. Angel offered food, shelter, and a place with her, though she would not let him go. He liked plants. Hunger and pudding proved more immediately persuasive than reassurance. Angel lent him Kelthyr’s protective amulet, requiring its eventual return, and asked the others to treat him as a friend.

He knew his childhood in Maiden’s Field. He did not know how far beyond it he had come.

Sandor woke as well, objected to Angel’s method of administering a potion, and agreed to help against the Reformists after resting. He described the Sandor-shaped creature used against the party: in his account, Mallow had assembled it using a murdered young changeling’s copied face. That was separate from Trajan’s friendly impersonation of Hellion.

Between treatment and the next gathering, Angel pursued another family mystery: Lance’s secret storage. He led her to a guarded warehouse in Rannekford’s river port. The supposedly dull errand concealed his collection of Legally Bare issues, merchandise, and artwork. Its top VIP, “Rance,” had evidently been very busy. Secrecy was promised, copies were signed, and the party returned to the castle around noon.

At lunch, Uther was awake and much improved. Kate and the others discussed continued healing, while Hellion remained at Maidenfeld Keep and allies searched the countryside. Ellington’s treatment was still ongoing. He and Antoinette reiterated their intention to abdicate after helping repair the damage, with Mark rather than Luke named to succeed him.

Angel still intended to travel to Bastion, despite her family’s warnings, and wanted Gwyniviere with her. More immediate questions crowded the table: the Emerald Shield shards, the king’s resistance to a parasite, Reformist access to places of power, and the advanced submarines the Maidenfelds had concealed.

Uther wanted a meeting.

Getting the parties together required arguments about security and neutral ground, but the formal inquiry convened at the castle. Ellington and Antoinette spoke about the movement they had renounced. They had restored the memories held by their parasites so that they would retain responsibility and guilt. They offered those memories as evidence, accepted the possibility of execution, and called for reparations without expecting forgiveness. Hellion showed the living parasite extracted from Ellington.

The Maidenfelds faced questions of their own.

A binding bargain restricted what the family could disclose. That restriction did not make every explanation they could give true. Baron Maidenfeld accepted responsibility for withholding information, defended his attempts to contain the danger, and recounted his wife’s infection and death. He had killed her believing the parasite had replaced her; his belief did not establish that rescue had been impossible.

Confronted about the submarine aboard the MS Paprika, the family acknowledged ownership. The Baron said the vessels principally protected the secrecy of their spice source, and argued that commercial silence had not meant inaction against the Reformists.

The cages aboard the Paprika demanded a better account than that.

The ship had carried people of varied ages and species, reportedly without criminal records. At least one was dead. Mallow’s controlled sailors established his involvement, but not the family’s suggested hijacking, its timing, or whether someone inside had helped. Uther invoked his authority over the Western Fleet and treated the affair as a national-security matter.

Nick of Bede said he had not controlled his actions. He described Crispin as a gifted gardener who denied knowing magic and disappeared periodically. The inquiry also heard that Crispin had served as a Reformist candle bearer. Testimony also supplied a name for Mallow’s passage through his victims: “meat stride.” The interruptions in Angel’s search had an explanation more terrible than travel between trees.

Questions about the spice trade led to questions about hidden cultivation, orbs, and the Maidenfelds’ old royal knowledge. Hellion inferred that the Baron understood Draconic and preferred not to advertise it. He let that knowledge remain discreet.

The investigation would proceed. Hellion made clear that he intended to accept, but not to undertake it alone. Terms, leadership, and military companions still needed to be settled.

Beyond the inquiry waited the flooded delta. Broken weirs and sluice gates, ruined crops, and the prospect of winter hunger could give the Reformists another opening. Powerful Plant GrowthPlant GrowthLevel 3 · Transmutation1 action, 8 hour · 150 ft. · InstantaneousV, SThis spell channels vitality into plants within a specific area. There are two possible uses for the spell, granting either immediate or long-term benefits. If you cast this spell using 1 action, choose a point within range. All normal plants in a 100-foot radius centered on that point become thick and overgrown. A creature moving through the area must spend 4 feet of movement for every 1 foot it moves. You can exclude one or more areas of any size within the spell's area from being affected. If you cast this spell over 8 hours, you enrich the land. All plants in a half-mile radius centered on a point within range become enriched for 1 year. The plants yield twice the normal amount of food when harvested. might help, if the party could find a capable caster. Returning the rescued elven children to their settlements offered a possible way to make contact with local elves. The party did not want that approach to become a bargain in which children were exchanged for assistance.

Meanwhile, the Baron sent Tristan to find out what had delayed Steven.

Tristan went to the courtyard. Later, he was located inside a cone of silence.

Angel tried to coax Crispin down from a tree with flowers she did not have. He knew perfectly well that blood orchids were out of season. Pudding remained the stronger offer. The others agreed to conceal his identity, while Angel guided him by the edge of her skirt.

Oren tried to follow Tristan.

The inquiry was still unfinished. So was the business in the courtyard.

At the Table: Where We Left Off

• Immediate scene: the formal inquiry remains in progress. Oren is trying to follow Tristan, whose presence in the courtyard inside a cone of silence is established; his business there is not. Steven’s delayed arrival also needs explaining.
• Uther is rescued: he is recovering and has asserted Western Fleet authority over the MS Paprika investigation. The battles at Castle Rannek and Maidenfeld Keep have ended.
• Crispin is ten: Auraxx’s boon left him with memories only up to that age. Angel has taken responsibility for him; his identity is being kept secret. Breaking Mallow’s fey bonds with Angel’s blood caused the controlled fighters to collapse before the transformation.
• The investigation will proceed: Hellion intends to accept. Its terms, personnel in charge, and military companions remain undecided. Maidenfeld submarine ownership is acknowledged; the Baron’s explanation and the proposed hijacking remain unverified.
• Recovery continues: Hedwig has undertaken retrieval of the ship and remaining captives; that rescue is not an unresolved outcome. Treatment, accounting for the court wizards, and returning the elven children remain important. Sandor is recovering after saving Trajan.
• The delta needs help: floodworks and crops require restoration to avert winter hunger. Contact with the local elves is proposed, not secured; returning their children must not become leverage for assistance.
• Longer commitments: Mallow’s victims still need care and restitution. The Malthreks’ corrective work and announced succession remain ahead, and Angel still wants to go to Bastion.

Draft Source Note

This recap draws from the maintained September 12 notes, including their reviewed boundaries and open hooks. It condenses side discussions and private interludes, and ends with the unfinished inquiry and Oren’s attempt to follow Tristan. This draft is for pregame use, not a replacement for the fuller notes and their evidence trail.