02/12/2023
On the road to Lantern Light from Hemlock Bastille, May had a conversation with Gift about his new personality and journey of self-discovery. She apologized for her behavior before she was captured and taken to the Bastille, and Gift assured her all was forgiven and they were still friends, though May lamented that growth inherently meant leaving simplicity behind them
The garrison as Lantern Light was emptied and traveled north, and the group met them on the road, where the leader of the Bastille guards thanked them for their service and informed them the city was currently unprotected
Arriving in Lantern Light, the group discovered Omnia had left a letter for them on her way through, in which she claimed she needed to save the last member of their group, Destester, and that all her Abishai were now dead.
She also said Nefaria would be spending time gathering artifacts, and their ultimate goal was to stop an evil plot in the Arrowhead Isles
She encouraged Star and Scale to also look for weapons if they ever hoped to stand a chance against Nefaria
Gift made his way to a dwarven fruit vendor named Dugan who Snuffler had pointed out before as having magic items
Dugan did indeed have a wheelbarrow that could carry any weight and a helm from his "grandpappy" which Gift eventually discovered was a helm of Bull Rushing, but was broken
Gift convinced May to spend time mending the helm for Dugan for free
With Zeb wearing the helm of Eternal Sorrows from the Bastille, the group also ran afoul of a dual-sword wielding Tortle named Chrest Zell, who attacked Zeb, believing him to be someone named Qui Lo
Upon subduing Chrest, they discovered he was a former student of a blood manipulation martial art alongside Qui Lo, the former wearer of the helm Zeb now wore, but Qui Lo had fallen to the dark side of the art, and Chrest was happy to know his former partner was dead in the Bastille, but wanted to ensure the helm was also destroyed
To that end, Chrest joined Star and Scale as they searched for Snuffler west of the city
They found the creature guarding the Windkept Bridge, and Snuffler agreed to take them to his "Queen" who would be able to remov the helm
Traveling south of the Royal Road, they found a clearing with a large arcane structure and a Tiefling woman attempting to open some manner of portal
She partially succeeded when a group of blink dogs and a massive, ten brained creature descended upon the party
After defeating the creatures, they discovered this "queen" was simply a druid named Delphina who was attempting to open what she called a Geist Gate to an island south of Jawhara called Raesh
She claimed she had left her people many years ago to create a bridge between Raesh and Highcroft in order to encourage trade between her dying civilization and the prosperous Highcroft. She wasn't sure if anyone in her homeland was even still alive, but all she needed were magic artifacts to power the gate
She melted down the Helm of Eternal Sorrow, adding it to the fuel for her Geist Gate, but it left Zeb deformed and scarred in the process
The group thanked her for her help and promised to bring her any other artifacts that might help power the gate
Star and Scale made their way back to Lantern Light, saying goodbye to Chrest who was happy to see the Helm now gone forever, and hoped he'd see the group again someday
They set out the next morning toward Sophivitas in an effort to learn more about where they may find more artifacts to combat Nefaria