Session 14 covered the evening of the Vigil of Remembrance and 1 Nightdeep, 1714 PSF, in Argentum. Temerity began training with the Dragoons of Bahamut. Luma received a letter from her great-grandfather Eliath Drace and made Beepo. A note in Iva’s dead drop summoned her to a meeting. The master coiner Dalric Ironmark told Luma and Hazel that Luma’s work order had never been authorized. That night a courier named Daisy came to Rhysaene’s apartment for a ledger, and drew her swords.
Synopsis
The Vigil
The party came up from the Underforge Vaults with the survey finished, and found the streets dim.1 The Everfire lanterns had been shut off for the evening.2 Small pale wax candles of every shape and size lined the streets instead.3 It was the Vigil of Remembrance, the holiday between two months dedicated to remembering those who died so that Argentum could flourish, and in the tunnels it had slipped their minds.34
Iva asked whether she should check the dead drops she had left for the Tarnar Syndicate.5 Rhysaene suggested trying tomorrow, and told her to let the group know before she went off doing that.67 Iva said she was asking because Rhysaene had been upset with her for doing that sort of thing in her home before she knew it was a rule.8 Temerity told her not to talk about it in public, and to disassociate from them if she could.910 Asked whether they knew where she lived, Iva said, “No, but they do know what I am.”1112
Walking through the Lantern Wards, the party saw the cold silver-white light of two Order of the Lantern lanterns in the distance, stark against the candlelight.13 The bridge guards seldom check papers on the way out of the Lantern Wards, though they can, and did while Miles Quickstep was being hunted.1415 The party crossed north into the Hearth Wall with Hazel hidden, and their papers were not checked.16 One of Iva’s three dead drops was about a street away from the Dancing Sword.17
The Dancing Sword
The Vigil is the only holiday in Argentum without a big festival.18 It is quiet and reflective, and most people stay home, though it is not taboo to be out.19 The Dancing Sword was open, with a few tables talking quietly and no performers.20 The woman who runs the bar was behind it polishing glasses.2122
Luma said that she no longer needed the others for the job, and that she now had hours at a desk drawing the maps and writing a report.23 She was genuinely excited about it.24 Temerity said her training began the next day, and that she hoped they could keep spending time together.25 “Yeah, you ate the bread, you’re not going anywhere, sorry,” Luma said.26
Temerity said she had been pulled out of the normal pool of recruits because of everything that had happened.27 Her understanding was that the Dragoons hunt Sorrowsworn.28 Rhysaene said they don’t take kindly to people like her, with a gesture that suggested spooky magic.2930 Temerity hoped her duties would include more Sorrowsworn than anything else.31 “And you fight one Sorrowsworn and you think you can take them all on, that’s… bold,” Luma said under her breath.3233 Hazel raised a toast: “May they turn you into the finest weapon in the land. May your execution of Sorrowsworn be swift and to the letter.”3435
Everyone in Argentum has heard of the Dragoons, an arm of the Order of the Lantern dedicated to fighting the Sorrow. The details of that work are not public knowledge.36 They are known to be elite and specially chosen.37 It is fairly commonly known that they do not receive the blessing of the Silver Flame, but something called the blessing of Bahamut.37 The censors of the Order hunt mages, and no one really knows why the Dragoons exist when the Order has the Inquisition and purifiers who fight Sorrowsworn.38 A purifier would be sent after a Sorrowsworn. The Dragoons would be called for a lich, a dragon or a devil, though as far as anyone knows none has come to Argentum in its history.3940 Rhysaene kept her hand over her heart while they talked about the Dragoons.41 A changeling would be the Order’s problem, and the Inquisition is trained for people using magical disguises.42
Hazel’s job interview was the next day. “I have nothing to worry about. I risk my life every day. An interview doesn’t mean anything.”4344 She meant to wear clothes Luma had made.45 Luma had drawn them, and was fairly sure that the ones she spent a long time on were permanent.4647 The meal and drinks came to about five embers each.48 Hazel had only two, and Rhysaene paid for her.4950 Iva ate little and watched the door.51
What Temerity Saw
Temerity left with Hazel, and outside in the cold air she told Hazel what she had glimpsed when she died.5253 It was lonely, it felt abandoned, and it felt a lot like the Sorrow, so she thought that what awaits after death might just be the Sorrow.54 Hazel asked whether that was all.55 It did not change anything, she said: they were working to stop the Sorrow, they had to be alive to do it, and she did not plan on dying any time soon.56 Her goal had always been to make it a better place here.57
Hazel asked why Temerity was keeping it from the others.58 Luma had said she wanted to go into the Sorrow, Iva ran into every situation with reckless abandon, and Rhysaene was a ticking time bomb to inquisitors and Dragoons alike.5960 Hazel had shared things about herself she wished she could have kept secret, knowing it might go poorly, and she gestured at Temerity as she said it.6162 Temerity promised to find a moment to tell the rest.63 Hazel told her the others were much stronger than Temerity might give them credit for.64
Temerity went back to the barracks and found her newly assigned bunk.65 Hazel went back to Calypso’s, gave the password and went in, leaving her map outside with Sage.66
The Dead Drop
Iva told Rhysaene she was nervous and was going to check the drop.67 Rhysaene told her not to bring it back to her, and that she didn’t mind keeping Iva around.6869 She patted Iva’s head. “Don’t be fucking stupid.”70 She offered to leave the door open, and said she would teach Iva to paint her nails.7172 Iva blushed.73
Rhysaene walked home through mostly empty streets.74 She passed a couple of Stone Shields on patrol for drunks and petty thieves, and a hooded, cloaked figure tossing birdseed to the birds in a little park near her apartment.7475 At home she made extra food and left a plate out for Iva.7677 Then she began a painting of the first part of a dream she had had: open plains, untamed and full of wildflowers, with snow-capped mountains behind, the Silver Vale before anyone came to claim it.7879
Iva slipped off somewhere secluded, changed into one of the sets of clothes she carries, and became Emilio Bullhand.808182 The dead drop held a folded note written in plain Common (see Dead-Drop Note (Handout)).83 She put it away and wandered the city for another hour to make sure she was not followed.8485 Distracted by her situation, she did it sloppily.86 She saw no sign that anyone was following her, but if anyone had been, she would not have lost them.87
She came back to an unlocked door and a plate left out.88 Rhysaene was still up painting.89 “I’m in trouble,” Iva said.90 Rhysaene put down her paintbrush and asked what she had got herself into.91 The note read: “Sunset on the 2nd of Nightdeep. The place where M met your nephew. Bring a familiar face. Come alone. -tF”9293 Iva took “come alone” to mean her.94 Rhysaene picked the brush up again and told her there was a plate for her.95 Iva was not very hungry, and sat staring at it.96 Rhysaene nudged the plate toward her with a back hoof, and said nothing more about it.97
The Ruby
Luma, a little drunk, went looking for a jeweler.98 She wanted a ruby worth 100 crowns.99 The shops were likely closed for the holiday, but many shopkeepers live above their shops.100101 Near her apartment she found a tiny shop, a two-story building squeezed into the height of one story, where a gnome was working at a desk upstairs.102103104 She threw pebbles at his window.105 He came down and pointed at the sign that said CLOSED.106107 Luma held up a fistful of platinum dragons, and he turned the sign and let her in.108109
He brought out an uncut ruby about the size she wanted, and offered to have it cut in a couple of days.110111 He does not usually sell loose stones, and asked 120 crowns.112 He settled at 100, which left him no profit. “You’re strange and I like that.”113 Luma offered to tell him what it was for if he took off another 20. “All right, then. Keep your secrets.”114115 He told her to come back for finished jewelry, which he could charge her for.116117 When she asked who supplied him, he wondered whether he had just sold raw materials to a competitor.118119 Luma lied that it would be a gift.120121 He found her charming, and had mixed feelings about the sale.122 “Go make your gift,” he said.123
The Parcel
Outside her door Luma found a parcel wrapped in vellum or light leather and tied with twine, with a sealed envelope tied to it.124125 The seal, in deep brown wax, was the official seal of the Drace Logging Company.126 The envelope held a letter from her grandfather, Mathas Drace.127 “Your mother, as ever, keeps the rest of us from drifting too far off course,” it read in part.128129 It told her of a short exploratory contract with the Sterling Timber Yard, only fifty years long.130131132
The parcel held a letter to Mathas from his father, Eliath Drace, dated sixty years earlier, and a sketch (see Eliath's Letter to Mathas (Handout)).133134135 The letter showed that Eliath had been alive sixty years ago.136 Mathas had been clear that Luma should not act on it.137 Luma tucked it all into her notebook, paced, and set it aside for the next day.138139
Beepo
To take her mind off it, Luma laid out the ruby, bottles of the phase spider and cloaker fluids she had collected, and the broken pieces of the Tarnar Turnstone, and began to doodle.140141 She spent several hours drawing the components together.142 When she finished, to her panic, they dissolved into the page and became a little construct.143 It was built around a bottle of glowing neon green-blue ink.144145 Luma had a small freak-out, over having created life and over the letters, and passed out.146
The Wetscales
Temerity woke before sunrise to the other wetscales dressing.147 There was no uniform, not even an Order of the Lantern tabard, and each put on whatever armor they had.148149 Some carried the Order’s standard weapons and some their own.150 The elf she had seen when she first came to the barracks carried a pair of war picks, one of good wood and steel and the other of dark wood and bone yellowed with age.150151
A very young-looking half-elf with a pretty face told her she had missed part of the orientation briefing, and that they were to report to the training yard before sunrise.152153 His grip was much lighter than hers. He stood about five foot six, with light hair and a very delicate build, and she could not help thinking, “This guy’s going to be a Dragoon.”154 He gave his name as Kyren Lenara.155 He remarked that Temerity is an unusual name, and also a word, and she told him she chose it.156157158
The elf walked over. He had long black hair in a messy ponytail, amber eyes, fair unblemished skin and dark circles under his eyes, like someone who does not get enough sleep, and seemed disconnected from what was going on.159160161 Looking at Kyren, and making no effort to keep Temerity from hearing, he said, “I wouldn’t get attached to this one. I don’t think they have what it takes.”162163 Temerity told Kyren it was nice to meet him, and let go of his hand.164 Kyren carried a simple flanged mace of the Order’s make and wore chain armor. The elf wore no armor.165166
In the training yard stood Cassia Brightshield, Rhea Larnas, who was a full Dragoon, and an elven woman Temerity had never seen.167 The stranger was about five foot two, lean and wiry, with muscle showing wherever her skin was bare.168 Her dark black hair was cropped very short.169 She wore light leather armor with a small silver dragon pin, and a cloak sewn together from patches of different fabric, all dyed solid black.170171 At her sides hung two sheathed mid-length blades, one straight like a shortsword and one curved like a scimitar, with dragon motifs on their hilts and crossguards.172173 Rhea stood six foot four.174
Cassia told the cadets that some came from the Order and some by other paths, and that all of them strove to be Dragoons of Bahamut, the most sacred and noble order in the fight against the Sorrow and its first and last defense.173175 She formally handed them over to one of the leaders of the Dragoons, the Golden Canary Lia Amakiir, with a small bow.176 Cassia left at once.177 Lia looked over the cadets, said, “I’ve got more important things to do. Rhea, handle this,” and left too.178 “You got it, boss,” said Rhea.179
Rhea told them that their commanding officer did not have time for them because most of them would never be under her command.179 Some would not be selected, some would choose not to go on when they saw the rigor and the danger, and some would not have the fortitude.180 Those left would be among the finest fighting men and women in the world, protecting Argentum and the Silver Vale from the Sorrow.181 Over the next few weeks they would be trained and evaluated in combat, and their endurance, obedience and mental rigor would be tested.182 They would learn the language of Bahamut himself if they did not already know it, learn to wield various weapons, and learn to defend themselves against horrors.183184 Before all that, they would learn to rely on one another and work as a team.184185 Then she had them introduce themselves.185
- Temerity went first: “Hello? My name’s Temerity. I’m from Crick's Bend, and I look forward to working with you all.”186 The elf gave her a look of total derision, and made no effort to hide that he hated her.187188
- Kyren was a member of the Order of the Lantern, and wanted to do what would let him help the most people, and be someone the people around him could depend on.189190
- Mika Voss, a tall, powerfully built human woman with dark skin and pale blue eyes, wanted to fight the Sorrow and the monsters out there.191192
- Maren Frostburn, a young human woman, had lost her mother, a Light Warden, in a Sorrow incursion. She knew it was not a good sign, or what she was supposed to do, but she wanted to get back at the thing that took her mother.192193 She had been a Light Warden herself, and thought she was ready.194
- Lirien Gossert, a half-elf woman; Davan Recht, a human man; and two more human men, Cylen and Torin.195196197198199
- Gianna Kirrane, a sturdy human woman carrying a hand-and-a-half sword, did not choose to be there. She was chosen, was still not sure she wanted anything to do with it, and thought it far more dangerous than being a Light Warden, but she had been asked, and so she had come.200201202203
- The elf said, “I’m Emeric. Emeric Vael. There are worse things outside these walls than a few sorrow corrupted animals, and I’m going to kill them.”204205
The Morning
Luma was at work by six.206 Kessa Tumblebrim does not usually come in until seven, but Luma has her own key.206 Kessa learned early that it was better to let Luma in than deal with the alternative, since Luma’s notes have spilled onto the face of the building when she ran out of paper.206207208 Kessa, a gnome, came in and asked whether the survey was finished.209 Luma said they had finished the day before, and that she was working on the notes.210211 Kessa told her to hand it in once it was final, and she would review it and pass it on to the Vaultsmiths.212 Luma worked on the report through the day, deciding what to put in and what to leave out.213214
It was 1 Nightdeep, and the meeting in Iva’s note was the next night.215216 Rhysaene went out to buy fine paints and supplies, to put real heart into her painting.217218 She spent seventy crowns, which made the painting worth 140 to the right buyer.219220 She found herself absorbed in the piece without knowing why.221 Iva stayed out of sight and lay in bed, depressed.222223 Her thoughts kept coming back to the problem she had made for herself: she had asked the Tarnar Syndicate for work, and whoever left the note had found some.224
The Interview
Around noon, Hazel went to the Sterling Sovereign to interview for a job as a barmaid.225226227 Kessel, the tiefling woman at the front, asked if she wanted her usual table.228229 Told it was an interview, Kessel checked her notepad and sent Hazel to the private room the party usually rented, saying the interviewer would be in shortly.230231 She looked a little confused.232 Hazel waited about twenty minutes.233
A half-elven woman came in, of an age hard to judge, somewhere between thirty and fifty.234 She had dark brown hair with streaks of grey and wore a deep green dress trimmed in silver.235 She did not carry herself like staff, but with a great deal of self-importance.235 Looking Hazel over, she let slip a look of pure “who let this person into this place,” and covered it quickly with a polite, welcoming smile that would have hidden it from most people.236237 Hazel smiled back and asked to use the restroom.238 Out of sight around the corner, she ducked under tables and left the building unseen.239 “Sorry, Rhys,” she muttered, deciding the opportunity was not worth it.240
The Hall of the Anvil
Hazel went home and meditated to prepare her spells.241 She still wanted to learn more about the dwarf with the strange coins.242 She waited by the Westgate, a bridge into the Lantern Wards with trees by it, west of the one by the Dancing Sword.243244245 Luma saw on her map that Hazel was at the Westgate Bridge, and left work for lunch to meet her.246247248
Hazel said she wanted to look further into the history of Argentum through the Vaultsmith she had spoken to at the festival.249250 Luma remembered him as kind of mean. Mean, Hazel agreed, but perhaps for good reason, if what they had seen in the vault was true.251252 She thought of asking the trees whether they had seen him.253 Luma wondered whether all trees know each other, because if so she had a lot to apologize for.254255 Hazel told her a bear does not apologize to the deer after it goes in for the kill, and neither should she.256257 Hazel had only just learned to speak with plants, and had never talked to one.258 Talking with animals had already shown her how differently their minds work from a person’s, and plant minds are more abstract still.259260 A tree has no real concept of pain, and losing a branch is more an inconvenience to it than a wound.261 Luma explained that her family’s company treats the forest like an entity, and always grows more than it takes.262
Luma could look for one of the dwarf’s coins with locate object, but they had taken none of the coins from the vault.263264265 She had not handed in her report yet, so she could still go into the Hall of the Anvil.266 Hazel became a gerbil so Luma could carry her across the bridge.267268 “We really need to get you some papers,” Luma said.269 The only way Hazel could think of was through people she did not want to talk to, the terrorists.270
The main entrance of the Hall of the Anvil is open to the public, with a receptionist.271 He was a human man with deep red hair in a ponytail and a long red beard braided in the dwarven style.272 Luma complimented it, and he said he worked really hard on it.273274 She introduced herself as from the Bureau of Infrastructure & Mapping, said she had surveyed the vaults and had follow-up questions for a Vaultsmith whose name she had not caught, and described him.275276 He was an older dwarf, probably in his hundreds, with dark hair and a traditional dwarven beard, unremarkable to look at, and every time they had met him he had smelled of whiskey.277278 Luma put it as nicely as she could.279
The receptionist sighed that it was no secret. Someone drinking on the job would be the master coiner, Dalric Ironmark, who was probably down in the minting vaults.280 The minting vault is highly restricted.281 He could send someone to fetch Dalric if it was important, or take a note, though he doubted Dalric would go to someone else’s office without good reason.282283 Dalric gets off work at about five.284
Luma wrote a note giving her name and her post at the Bureau, and inviting him for a drink on her if he would answer questions about the vaults for her report.285286 At Hazel’s whispered suggestion she drew the double crescent moon from the coins in the vault, with a line saying they had found it.287288 With her illuminator’s tattoo she made that part invisible to anyone but Dalric.289290291 They passed over the Sterling Sovereign, too fancy for his drinking habits, and asked him to meet them at the Dancing Sword at half past five, or when he got off work.292293294295 They left the note with the attendant.296 Luma took Hazel back by the Swordgate, so she would not be seen crossing the same bridge too often, and had a quick lunch at the Dancing Sword before going back to work.297298
The Fang
Temerity’s day was hard physical testing: climbing ropes, push-ups and combat drills with her chosen weapon.299 While the cadets were showing their fighting styles, Rhea came over. “So, pretty big hammer you got there.”300 Asked whether it was unwieldy, Temerity said no, and that it was from her hometown and she would prefer to keep it.301302303
Rhea took a warhammer from her back.304 It was lighter than Temerity’s maul, with a light wooden shaft wrapped in a silver pattern like a dragon’s tail.304 One of its two heads was shaped like a dragon’s head, and a pattern of wings was carved into it.305306 Its metal was a very bright silver, rippled like Damascus steel, and the ripples moved slowly.306307308 “For the Dragoons, we don’t have lanterns, we don’t have tabards, we don’t have badges. A Dragoon is marked by their fang,” she said, and held it out to her.309
If Temerity were chosen, Rhea said, a fang would be made for her, and she would want to use it.310311 Sorrowsworn and things of that kind are particularly dangerous, and weapons made to fight them are preferred, and in some cases required.311312 Temerity said that whatever would help her fight the Sorrow best was what she would use.313 The hammer was cold to the touch, and had an aura.314 Something in it was familiar from her rage: the moment of impact when she is full of silver fire and the motes crackle as she smashes into something.314315 The first second she touched it, the hairs on the back of her neck stood up. The fine handaxe she had held before made her feel nothing.316317318
Rhea took it back.319 If Temerity were selected, and it mattered to her, some part of her old hammer could probably be worked into her fang, though the metal had to be specially made and blessed.320 Temerity said that would mean a lot to her.321 Rhea reminded her, in the tone of a challenge, that that was if she were selected.322 Temerity said she would prove worthy of it.323
All through the conversation, Temerity saw Kyren and Emeric talking off to the side, and Emeric staring daggers at her.324 She was not the only one. He stared that way at almost everyone there, Lia included, and the only person he seemed to have no ill feeling toward was Kyren.325326327 At around five the cadets were dismissed, to come back the next morning.328
Temerity walked up to Emeric and asked what the deal was.329330 He said she looked a little too sold on it all: “The pageantry of it, the fucking… The pomp and the circumstance and the cult shit. You reek of a true believer.”331332333 “You misunderstand respect for naive following. That’s on you,” she said.334 He said she and the rest of the trainees had no idea what was out there.335 It was not his job to tell her. “You’ll figure it out if you make it, don’t worry. There are things much worse than Sorrowsworn out there.”336337
Temerity tried to read him. There was arrogance, but no bravado, nothing like Dorian Draken.338339 He was very hard to read, and his face showed little he did not allow it to, which comes with practice.340341342 She clapped a hand on his shoulder, and said she hoped to live up to his expectations and fight more than Sorrowsworn out there.343344 He smiled the same condescending smile. “If you live, you will have exceeded my expectations.”345 As he walked off, she saw him take his hand off the handle of the bone war pick. She had not seen him put it there.346
Dalric Ironmark
Luma finished work and handed in her report, and she and Hazel were at the Dancing Sword by five.347348 Not long after, the dwarf walked in, and came over when Luma waved.349350 “So you’re the ones who left me that note.”350 He called for whiskey, and to keep it coming.351 “You’re paying for my drinks,” he told them, and Luma answered, “If you answer our questions.”352353 He wanted to know about the coin she had drawn, and what she meant by finding it.354
Hazel reminded him that at the Festival of Bells he had asked her whether his coins were over 1,700 years old.355356357 He reached toward a pocket of his coat, pulled nothing out, and groaned.358359 She had dismissed the question then, she said, but she now knew they were not that old, and she wanted to know what he knew.357360 “By the damn flame,” he said.361 He had been drunk, he remembered some annoying little elf trying to talk to him while he was drinking, and it would be in both their interests to forget it had happened.362363
Hazel asked what the name Fardrimm meant to him.364 His eyes darted around. “That’s a little more than a little coin. Where’d you hear that word? What do you know?”365 Hazel said they had found it in the vaults.366 Luma said she had surveyed there, and that her work order covered Vaults 13 through 16 and 17 through 19.367368 He asked whether she still had it, and read it three times.369370 It was not authorized, he said. If anyone had authorized her to be in Vaults 17 through 19, he would have heard of it.371 It looked right, and someone who knew what they were doing had put it together.372 Someone would lose their job, a lot of people might, and someone could be looking at jail or worse.373 “Oh, brother. By hammer and anvil, by flame, by dragons long dead.”374 Luma said she had been hoping for a pat on the back and a raise.375 “If you aren’t thrown in a deep pit and never heard from again, you will count yourself incredibly lucky.”376
He said he was not complicit, downed his whiskey and got up to leave.377378 Asked what she should do, he told Luma to pray to the flame.379380 Luma pointed out that he had been upset before he even saw the work order.381 He said he was the master coiner, not the master of work orders, and had only realized when he saw the order that he would have heard of this one.382383 Telling her why the vaults mattered would get him in trouble.384 He had standing enough, he said, to have them both dragged off and killed without anyone asking questions, and this would be the last time they threatened to implicate him.385386 Then he told them to get a room, leave a key on the table and go up. He needed a couple more whiskeys first.387388
Hazel left Sage beside him. “Not a dog sitter. I hate dogs. I don’t really hate dogs. I just hate that I’m here right now.”389390 Luma and Hazel rented the cheapest room that would fit three.391 Through Sage’s senses Hazel watched him, and three times he talked himself out of leaving.392393 Luma tore paper into scraps and fed them to her bag of holding, as she does when she is nervous.394395
Meanwhile Temerity, Iva and Rhysaene reached the Dancing Sword at about the same time, each thinking Luma and Hazel had gone out for drinks.396397 The floor was busy with the dinner crowd, a dwarf was sitting alone drinking whiskey, and Sage was on the floor beside him.398399 Temerity recognized him from the trip into the vaults.400401 While Rhysaene asked Temerity how training went, the dwarf picked something up off the table and went upstairs.402403 Temerity asked the bartender whether they could join their friends upstairs.404 It was not her place to judge, the bartender said. It was room 204, and they would have to knock.405
Room 204
Dalric came in with Sage and slammed the door behind him.406 He wanted to know who had set it up.407 Luma said the order had been authorized by her boss, Kessa Tumblebrim, a senior surveyor, on behalf of the senior Vaultsmith of the Structural Integrity Division, who was not named on it.408409 There are several senior Vaultsmiths, and Dalric is technically one of them.410 The order had been issued on 29 Coldrise.411 The Structural Integrity Department had had a shake-up about a week earlier and had no head.412 The order had slipped through that crack, technically authorized by someone who no longer worked there.412413
Luma said the order claimed the vaults had been sealed 500 years ago, and that what she had found said otherwise.414415 Dalric did not want to hear it.416 The Guild of Sparks had little to do with the order, and the Vaultsmiths were the ones in trouble.417418 Luma said she had mapped the vaults and noted the hazards, unmarked passages and sealed doors, and had left out the things that contradicted the dates.419 She showed him her copy of what she had turned in.420421 Nothing in it stood out, he said, and they might not execute her outright.422423
Going to someone now would only make them wonder why she had followed the order and questioned it afterward.424425 If she stuck to what was in her report, someone above her would take the real fall.426 He knew Kessa, who had been good for the Bureau, and thought she would skate by if she had followed orders.427 Someone in the Vaultsmiths would go down for it.427 Knowing about the shake-up, making the order so authentic and sending it through all the proper channels would take a Vaultsmith, and not a nobody.428 Someone high up in his organization had set it up.428
He said he had made some dire mistakes, and had said far too much at the festival.429 The coins were not that old: “Not the… the crescent moon thing. The old silver pieces. Pre-Starfall, pre-Argentum, pre-Bahamut, pre-all of it. They aren’t that old.”430431 The ones he carries were probably about 350 years old, silver, of good quality and well preserved, and there was no way they would be that untarnished after 1,700 years or more.432433 As master coiner he mints, or oversees the minting of, all of Argentum’s currency, and the metal has to come from somewhere.434435 The minting vaults hold old coins, relics and artifacts, and they melt it all down.436437
His smartest play, he told them, was to go straight to the Order of the Lantern and have them all taken out back before they could say anything against him.438439 He told them this so that what he said next would carry weight.440 He wanted nothing to do with it. If they were caught, his name was not to come up, and he would deny all of it.441442 Luma took back her note and tore it up for her bag.443444445 “Oh, you idiot little elf,” he said.446 The survey would be investigated, and the clerk who took the note would say Luma Drace had been looking to interview Dalric Ironmark.447448 The coin alone, he feared, could get them all thrown in Candlehold.449450 Luma told him he was the only one who would have recognized it.451 If anyone asked, she would say they had been looking for a grumpy old dwarf, and the clerk had given them the wrong one.452453 “That could be any dwarf,” Dalric said.454
The other three reached the door, and Iva knocked and asked Hazel whether they were doing things in there that the others should not be involved in, or whether they could come in.455 Dalric panicked and eyed the window.456457 Luma pressed her forehead to the door. “We’re busy. Come back later.”458 When Iva said they wanted to talk, Hazel called out that Luma had disrobed.459460 Iva told the others she had told them they were doing things.461
Dalric was sweating.462 Luma’s plan was plausible deniability: he was the wrong dwarf, and he knew nothing.463 “You’re going to be lucky if you still have your life by the end of the week,” he told her.464 He meant to go home and get very drunk.465 He had never been implicated in high crimes and treason before.466 They had never met, he said, and no one would remember them together, since the place was busy and there were lots of dwarves in Argentum. Then he corrected himself: there are not that many dwarves in Argentum anymore.467468 Learning that the people at the door had been in the vaults too, he said, “A whole team of people were down in the fucking residential vaults.”469470 Then he told them to get out, and said he would leave later.471
Luma said she did not have a robe.472 Hazel explained that disrobing meant getting naked, and that she had needed an excuse for them being alone in an inn room.473474 Luma did not think she could lie about that.475 On the way downstairs Luma asked how the interview had gone.476 Hazel said she and the owner had differences in aesthetic sensibilities, and that she had called her trash.477478 Luma offered to go graffiti the place, and Hazel said yes.479480 Hazel suggested that with her herbalism and Luma’s crafting, they could sell things.481 At the bottom of the stairs she told the others she had lied about the disrobing.482 Luma invited everyone back to her apartment to talk.483484
Luma’s Apartment
Luma brought out the little construct. “This is Beepo. I don’t know what he is.”485 He waved, sloshing the ink in his bottle, though none poured out of the top.486487 Luma thought she had made life.488 He fired a laser beam at a makeshift dartboard on her wall.489 Temerity stared, jaw open, and later held up a hand to block him from view.490491
Luma told them about Dalric, and that her work order might have been falsified.492493 Rhysaene knew “that prick”.494 Luma had hired them, so they could be in trouble too.495 They settled on a story. It was dark, there were monsters, and they were too busy protecting Luma to notice anything.496497 “I don’t recall, officer.”498
Then Luma told them about the letter from her great-grandfather, who disappeared in the Elder Exodus.127499 He is the reason she became a cartographer.500 He had asked her grandfather to look into a place near Erhadell, and her grandfather had not, probably because he thinks his father is crazy.501502503 Luma did not think he was.503 She shared Eliath’s letter, and kept Mathas’s to herself as personal.504 Then she brought out the sketch.505 She was disappointed in its quality: three bodies of water, a rough smattering of trees, and a rock.506507508
Luma and Temerity both found something familiar in the grove.509 Luma had never been to a grove like it outside Erhadell, and neither Mathas nor her father had ever mentioned it or any corrupted trees.510 Mathas’s letter said he did not remember any of it.511 It felt as though she were missing very important information, and the letter seemed kind of insane.512513 It was the only word she had ever had from her great-grandfather, and it meant he had been alive sixty years ago, and might still be out there.514
Luma thought of asking Hecate about it.515 Rhysaene asked whether the sickness in the letter was the Sorrow.516 Eliath wrote that he returned to the grove in trance. Elves do not sleep, Luma explained, and in trance they think over their pasts.517518 Her grandfather had told her that before the Starfall, elves used to dream of past lives, and she wondered whether Eliath was dreaming of a place he had never been.518519520
Temerity asked whether they could reach Hecate without going to Silverthorn.521 Hazel’s sisters could send word.522 Beepo, it turned out, can fly. The goop bubbled out of his bottle and became a little hot air balloon.523524525 Hazel worried that if Hecate saw that approaching the farm unannounced, it would be no more.526 Luma asked whether Sage could fly, and whether Sage was a person.527528 Hazel said Sage is a familiar, a spirit that has forged an eternal bond with her.529530 “Oh, you’re married,” said Luma.531 Hazel said Sage is her best friend.532 She has magic to send word through animals, but did not know whether it could reach as far as Crick’s Bend.533534 Apart from Calypso and the sisters at the farm, the sisters Hazel knows of are nomadic and roam the Vale, and she knew of none near Erhadell.535536537
The Sorrow is no secret, so it was strange that Eliath would avoid the word, unless he was a poetic sort of writer.538539540541 The Sorrow can affect plants, as Hazel knew: afflicted trees do not grow toward light, and plants wither and blight.542543 She had heard that a badly corrupted plant can become a hazard.543544
The Sketch
Then it clicked into place for Luma. The sketch was no poor drawing, but a perfect, to-scale map of Argentum and the Silver Vale.545 The big trees were the towers, and Argentum was the great tree.546 Luma laid a copy of it over a map of the Vale, and the little lakes fell where two rivers meet.547548549 She read the letter again: the towering elders ringing the canopy, the still, dark ponds where the streams divide, the deadwood.550
The two dead trees lay beyond the edge of the Vale, where the map showed nothing, but the distances were to scale.551552 Luma measured them. In a straight line, the dead tree on the left was 97 miles from Argentum, and the one on the right 139 miles, further still by road.553554 The right tree looked as if it could lie almost on the line of the road, which curves southward; the left one was harder to judge.555556 The rock was about 140 miles away, with no convenient road and mountains in the straight line.557558 There were two ways that might get there, though they knew too little of what lay beyond the Vale to be sure. One followed the river past Erhadell through a gap in the mountains; the other took the fork road almost straight west, hoping to hook back north.559560 Luma remembered that Dorian Draken had put the City of Ghosts in the east, and wondered whether the dead branches were dead cities.561562563
Hazel told them about a dream she had had, in which Argentum was a great tree whose roots reached down to a place that was incredibly hot, and began to wither there.564565566 She wondered whether it was the Everfire.567 A lot of the Everfire comes up into the city, Luma said.568 The map and the letter were at least sixty years old.134 The Everfire lamps went up fairly recently, probably starting a few decades ago.569570 Luma wondered whether they had been put in less to heat the city than because it was getting too hot down below.571572
The Deep Road
Hazel knew of the Underdark, and that no one would go that far down: if the Sorrow is bad for creatures on the surface, the things in the Underdark would be worse.573574 The Underdark does not begin until about three miles below the surface, which is exactly the depth of the Fardrimm Gate.575 Luma had read the gate as “here lies the Fardrimm, the deep road.”576 Hazel took it for a road through the Underdark, and Luma recalled that Eliath asked Mathas to walk the old paths.577578
Digging around the seal might let in whatever it kept out, so to go through they would need a Tarnar Turnstone.579580 A turnstone looks like a timer with a dial.581 Left to wind up a full twelve hours, it works without spending any charges. The more time is cut off the windup, the more charges it burns, and the charges do not come back. Once it is out of charges, it explodes.581582 The only one they knew of had been with the Stone Shields, and High Inquisitor Westra Saelis had taken it.583584585
Iva then showed them the note from her dead drop.586587 “You understand that those are terrorists, right?” Luma asked. “I know they’re not good people,” said Iva.588589 Iva thought it could be their way to a turnstone.590 Luma would rather steal from the authorities than owe the terrorists.591 Iva meant stealing from the terrorists.592 The note’s “bring a familiar face” suggested that the Syndicate did not know what Iva looked like.593594
Plans
Hazel said that safety came first.595 They would agree on one story and stick to it: they had done a job for a friend and seen nothing, with Luma’s report as their alibi, and they would lay low.596597598 She wished Iva well with the Tarnar. Iva asked whether they would miss her if she did not come back. “If you don’t come back, I’ll find you.”599600601 Temerity told her to make as much noise as she could if she ran into trouble.602 Luma reminded her that they could see her on the map, and told her to walk in circles if she were kidnapped.603 Temerity meant to wait a block or two away, watching the map, and Rhysaene offered to stand as near as she could.604605606 “I’m fairly sure they can make me be quiet,” said Iva.607 Hazel told her that she had been tangled up with the Tarnar far longer than any of them, and that in matters to do with them she would defer to her.608609
Hazel told them that the owner of the Sterling Sovereign had called her trash. The woman had not said it, Hazel admitted, but Hazel knew a look of contempt.610611 Luma remembered that her grandfather had finalized a short contract with the Sterling Timber Yard and Sawmill, fifty years, the shortest she had ever heard of.132 Both have Sterling in their names.612 The Drace family is almost the only lumber supplier in the Silver Vale, with one other.613614 Luma would tell her grandfather what had happened the next time she saw him.615 Hazel described the woman as half-elven, and not much older than herself.616 She had been wearing her nice clothes.617
Temerity did not find a way to bring up what she had seen, and the moment passed.618619620
Hazel spoke of a place not far from where she grew up, which she had been forbidden to go near her whole life.621622623 Once you get far enough out, she said, you start hearing things that aren’t there.624625 A second rock, identical to the first, marked that place on the sketch.626627 It was the Ruined Citadel, which Hazel had wanted to explore all her life, and Luma thought it a good excuse to go and look.628629630 It lies just outside the protection of the watchtowers.631632 The plan, Luma said, was to wait for her to get fired.633
Luma proposed a business. Hazel would make things with herbalism and Luma with her crafting, they would make Rhysaene’s supplies, and Rhysaene would sell her art.634 Luma could make frames and canvases, and Hazel paints.635 They might take a proposal to Luma’s grandfather for funding.636
Hazel stayed the night with Luma and showed her what she could make with her herbalism kit.637638 Iva thought of staying there too, so as to be harder to find, but went home with Rhysaene.639640641 Temerity went back to the barracks.642
Daisy
At Rhysaene’s apartment, at nine or ten in the evening, while she and Iva were settling in, there was a knock at the door.643644 Rhysaene opened it to a very pretty half-elven woman with a cute face and a very small button nose.645 Her light blonde hair was cut just longer than a buzz cut, and under one eye she had a small tattoo of a white four-petaled flower with a yellow center.645646647 Her light cotton poncho, embroidered all over with flowers of the same style, hung from her shoulders to her knees.646 She smiled brightly. “Hi. I’m Daisy. I’m a courier. I’d like to talk to you about something if that’s alright. You’re Rhysaene, right?”647
It was a private matter, and Rhysaene led her back to her bedroom.648649 Passing Iva, Daisy glanced at her, smiled, and gave her a little wink.650 “I’m here to pick up the ledger,” she said.651 Asked who from, she answered, “Oh, yeah, Lathiel sent me.”652 Rhysaene’s ear twitched.653 She could find nothing that ran counter to what Daisy said. There was no hesitation in her voice, and she was bright and chipper, just doing her job.654 Asked how she knew Lathiel, she said she was just a courier.655656 Rhysaene said she had not heard of Lathiel doing any business dealings lately.657 Daisy suggested the back of a drawer, a cupboard, or loose floorboards under the bed.658 It was nothing Rhysaene had not looked at before. “You sure? Because I’m supposed to pick it up tonight.”659660
Rhysaene suggested she step outside and take a look, and said Iva would keep her company.661662 “Nah, that’s okay. I figured we were gonna have to do this the hard way.”663 Her poncho flew up in a gust of movement, and in each hand was a shortsword, dripping with a clear fluid.663664 Under the poncho she wore dark, heavy leather armor, and she lunged for Rhysaene.664
Featured Characters
Player Characters
New
- Beepo
- Cylen Meras
- Daisy
- Davan Recht
- Gianna Kirrane
- Lirien Gossert
- Maren Frostburn
- Mika Voss
- Torin Elke
Returning
- Cassia Brightshield
- Dalric Ironmark
- Emeric Vael
- Kessa Tumblebrim
- Kessel
- Kyren Lenara
- Lia Amakiir
- Rhea Larnas
- Sage
Mentioned
Quotations
- “No, but they do know what I am.” Iva.12
- “Yeah, you ate the bread, you’re not going anywhere, sorry.” Luma to Temerity.26
- “May they turn you into the finest weapon in the land. May your execution of Sorrowsworn be swift and to the letter.” Hazel to Temerity.3435
- “I risk my life every day. An interview doesn’t mean anything.” Hazel.44
- “Don’t be fucking stupid.” Rhysaene to Iva.70
- “You’re strange and I like that.” The jeweler to Luma.113
- “I wouldn’t get attached to this one. I don’t think they have what it takes.” Emeric Vael to Kyren Lenara.162
- “A Dragoon is marked by their fang.” Rhea Larnas.309
- “You reek of a true believer.” Emeric Vael to Temerity.333
- “You misunderstand respect for naive following. That’s on you.” Temerity to Emeric Vael.334
- “If you live, you will have exceeded my expectations.” Emeric Vael to Temerity.345
- “If you aren’t thrown in a deep pit and never heard from again, you will count yourself incredibly lucky.” Dalric Ironmark to Luma.376
- “Not a dog sitter. I hate dogs. I don’t really hate dogs. I just hate that I’m here right now.” Dalric Ironmark.390
- “Oh, you’re married.” Luma, on Sage.531
- “You understand that those are terrorists, right?” Luma to Iva.588
- “I figured we were gonna have to do this the hard way.” Daisy.663
Inventory
- An uncut ruby, bought by Luma for 100 crowns and used in making Beepo, along with the phase spider and cloaker fluids and the shards of the spent Tarnar Turnstone.
- A letter from Mathas Drace to Luma, and a letter from Eliath Drace to Mathas with his sketch.
- A note from Iva’s dead drop.
- Paints and supplies worth seventy crowns, bought by Rhysaene.
Trivia
- In Argentum, a basic potion of healing is an herbal remedy, and not magical.665
- The sketch as first shared left out the second rock, which was added during the session.666667
Speaking Time
| Speaker | Time | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Dungeon Master | 1:58:12 | 34% |
| Luma | 1:05:15 | 19% |
| Iva | 52:59 | 15% |
| Hazel | 52:51 | 15% |
| Temerity | 43:50 | 12% |
| Rhysaene | 18:58 | 5% |