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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lylandra" data-source="post: 7249568" data-attributes="member: 6816692">Intermezzo, Pt. 1Back in Seaquen, the party immediately pays headmastress Simeonne a visit. They report on what happened in Dassen and Simeonne is surprised to hear that a Trillith seemed to be working with or for the Ragesians. She's happy to hear about the rather peaceful solution to the almost-ignited third civil war. Also, having the combined armies of Steppengard and Gallo at the Alydi Gap will help fend off Revulus' army so they'd have more time to do proper planning and information gathering.Simeonne calls the party her most successful agents and mentions that she sent two other adventuring parties out to get more information about the Burning Sky and possible countermeasures against it. One of these groups was sent to Ostalin to make peaceful contact with the Monastery of the Two Winds, a mystic place her advisor Lee Sidoneth often spoke about before his untimely demise. The other group is on a mission to Sindaire to examine what might be the source of the Burning Sky from a closer distance. She explains that she's in contact with both groups via sending, but she's also a bit concerned about the fact that Tashalanos' expedition sounded a bit disinterested in their mission lately. Note: I kind of wanted to hint at both of the next adventures. Especially because Tinuviel's player (being an avid teleporter) had a particular interest in the Burning Sky phenomenon. At that point I thought it would be very well possible that they'd want to go to Sindaire first and I would have converted both adventures a bit if they really wanted to explore Korstull before meeting Pilus.  Still it is yet too early to come to any conclusion and if there's work to be done for her personal heroes, then she'll send word to them. Now is the time for celebration and rest and they have all earned a bit of a break. When they get back to the common room of the Lyceum, they are all greeted by Kate, the friendly neighborhood bard. She says that she did some research about the Taranesti (as Cuin asked her to) and found some ancient texts about a pyramid structure in the swamps between Seaquen and Vidor. Cuin remembers pyramids to be older versions of Taranesti graves which are reserved for great heroes of their people, so he's totally keen on going there.Tinuviel hasn't seen Crystin for quite a while now, so he visits her room to check up if everything's alright. The young woman is happy to see her friend alive and kicking and she's even happier to hear that Jinis, Jineer's father was rescued from prison by the party. She tells Tinu that she's started to make notes on her visions and that she had some recently:She saw a wall of fire raining on a dark castle and a fire storm raging in a world made of crystal.She saw a person with a face split in black and white and a small, ethereal, blue dragon coiling around it. She felt that the person was really serene, but starting to grow weaker.She heard the phrase “No one wind may destroy the torch's flames, but a second wind could be its ruin”She saw Guthwulf climbing a mountain, trying to grasp something above him only to come falling down laughing.She saw a young woman being attacked by a fiery ray which she dissolved with antimagic.Note: Hints of things to come: The Burning Sky / Rain of Fire over Korstull, Balance, the divination for the second wind, Guthwulf's downfall and Leska's discovery of her powers.Crystin is also keen on going on an adventure with her friends again, so she agrees to visit the Taranesti Pyramid with Kate and the rest. They travel to Vidor the next day and hear that people are missing. Also, Trolls were spotted recently and some people believe that the missing townspeople were eaten by the Trolls. The party decides to proceed with caution. They search the swamp for the pyramid and find a stony platform which might be a pyramid's tip after some hours.They head to the structure and find a gap through which they can reach the inside of the pyramid. They are, however, surprised to hear chanting coming from down there. They sneak down a bit and see a huge Troll who seems to be performing a crude ceremony. He's holding a human body over his head and tries to weave some magic to connect with the person's soul.Cuin and Tinu decide that they cannot simply let that happen, so they toss all caution aside and jump down on the Troll. Meanwhile, Kate starts an inspirational performance and Crystin throws psionic shards. This troll doesn't like being cut however and deals a massive blow to Cuin. Torrent runs down the stairs to heal him up while Tinuviel tries to keep the brute in check. Together they manage to finally kill the Troll.They are relieved to see that the woman (which the troll tossed aside when he got attacked) is still breathing. They find some other dead (and partially eaten) bodies near the ritual's place which have been lying there for quite a while. Cuin takes some time to study the paintings and frescoes at the tomb's walls. He sees scenes from the life of the person who might be entombed here: A Taranesti woman who exchanged magic or some sort of energy with a golden dragon. She got great powers in the process and traveled the world and visited the Tree of Innotendar. When she was about to die, she performed a ritual to send back her magic to the dragon. The last picture shows elves who erect the pyramid and place her body inside.They continue to search the pyramid and find a sarcophagus and an inscription which says “Amalthea, champion of Syana, first of the Syllith”. They come to the conclusion that the Troll saw the pictures of this Syllith and tried to emulate the rituals of the Syllith. He just happened to suck out the souls of humans instead.Cuin realizes that his mother must have done the very same ritual when she became a Syllith. He feels honored to have found such a place and uses some time to get in tune with this place. Something here feels eerily familiar...After that, they take the Vidorian woman (whom they heal up), the dead troll and the human remains and leave the pyramid. They seal off the gap with a large stone to prevent further desecration. Then they head back to Vidor and bring the woman and the dead back to their people.Note: So this was “Kate's little sidequest”. I used “Haddin's sidequest” from the 4e version as inspiration, but, as mentioned before, didn't want to include a troll-infested Taranesti city. It didn't make too much sense for me. But I liked the general idea of some Taranesti presence outside of Ycengled. So I invented the story of Amalthea, the first Syllith (yeah, a total rip-off of Lady Amalthea) who exchanged part of her soul with Syana. Syana's soul magic would become a central theme later and I wanted to make sure my players knew what being a Syllith (like Cuin's mother) was all about.  </blockquote>

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