28 - The Crown of Wrath
| Session 1 | Session 27 | Session 28 | ||
| ◀◀ | ◀ | ▲ | ▶ | ▶▶ |
| Ashira Brolin Frostbite | Ashira Frostbite | Ashira Frostbite |
We are wrath!
The adventurers stood in the echoing hallway of Zybilna’s palace. A lot of the doors were still sealed - either marked with lions or stags, symbols barring their passage. Only one door remained free to them, a narrow chance in a palace brimming with nonsensical routes.
Ashira pushed forward with urgency, Frostbite close on her heels. The others lingered, weighing possibilities, but the dragonborn’s patience was threadbare. They had Zybilna’s name - or thought they did - but not the true one, not the key. Every delay gnawed at his scales.
The River Corridor
The last open door led into strangeness. Below its threshold, instead of stone, ran a river channeled between palace walls. From the other side came the creak of wood: a boat drifting toward them as though summoned.
Behind them, of course, Zephyr couldn’t resist himself. Four oaken hatches lined the wall of the previous chamber, each with levers. Before anyone could stop him, the first lever snapped down.
"Ja," a voice croaked from the hatch. Another lever. "Ba." A third. "Ga."
Ashira quickened her pace to the waiting boat, Frostbite stalking beside her, the cleric of Valor’s Call following as well. Behind them the odd syllables multiplied into a chorus, but when Frostbite looked back - the room was gone. No Zephyr, no Maeve, no Dhanell, no Brolin. Silence swallowed them whole.
The choice pressed hard: return into emptiness or press forward into uncertainty. Frostbite’s claws tightened on the rudder. The boat obeyed, drifting down the dark canal.
Shadows Beneath the Surface
The cleric peered into the water, her voice trembling: "There are faces…"
Frostbite caught glimpses of them too - thin, pale visages rippling beneath the surface, stretching long in the current like drowned memories. Dark shadows writhed among them. He turned his eyes away, unwilling to let the water’s hunger root itself in him.
The canal brought them first to a door in the left wall. Letting the rudder go stilled the boat as if by design.
Inside: eight mannequins, each trapped in a glass case, draped in finery. Ashira examined the displays with practiced curiosity. Frostbite only grunted. Clothes meant nothing to him. But then Ashira stilled.
One of the mannequins wore the likeness of Iggwilv, Queen of Perrenland.
Ashira and Frostbite exchanged a sharp glance. Was this Zybilna’s name again, under yet another mask? Or a ruse to waste their time? Frostbite’s jaw tightened. "Best not tell Zephyr or Maeve," he muttered. "They’ll waste hours playing dress-up." Ashira smirked agreement, though Frostbite already knew he’d blurt it eventually. Secrets sat ill on his tongue.
They shut the door and moved on.
The second room reeked before it even opened. Inside: eight wicker cradles, each beneath a mobile of dangling Elven letters. Small green, clawed hands reached from within, scrabbling for the letters. Maggots writhed on the floor, flies buzzing. Neither Ashira nor Frostbite wished to step further. They closed the door quickly, unsettled.
The Silent Library
Further along, two turns of the canal ended at a final chamber: a library without titles. Shelves of blank books lined the walls. Twelve candles floated around a desk bearing ink and quill.
Ashira plucked a book at random - empty but for a thin black line. She wrote; the words dissolved instantly.
"Useless," Frostbite growled.
They had no more leads. Resigned, they turned the boat back toward where the others had vanished.
Reunion and Revelation
To their relief, the missing companions reappeared as the boat touched the hatch-room again. Zephyr, Maeve, and the rest claimed the hatches had whisked them into the great tower itself.
Ashira passed the blank book to Dhanell, who studied it thoughtfully. "Perhaps it needs a title," he suggested. He wrote: True Names of Prismere.
The ink stayed. The pages filled. Frostbite leaned in, eyes narrowing as names bloomed across the parchment - lamia masters, ancient fae, countless denizens of the realm. But where Zybilna’s name should be, there was only an empty line.
Frustration burned cold in Frostbite’s throat. So close - and yet withheld.
Diversions, Secrets, and a Crown
The others pressed about the unexplored rooms. Ashira deftly downplayed the cradles of maggots, convincing Zephyr and Maeve to ignore them. The mannequins were another matter. Frostbite had meant to keep quiet, but truth spilled out in careless fragments. Ashira shot him a sharp look; Frostbite only muttered, "Sorry."
Eventually, the group returned to the library to test more titles. One revelation emerged: a riddle about a crown hidden in the garden’s pool.
They sought it immediately. Zephyr flew above the water, finding nothing. Ashira reached in - and a pale, delicate hand rose from the depths, offering a silver-spiked crown. Zephyr snatched it with a cloth. The fish below twisted into humanoid shapes, lips moving soundlessly before fading back into the water.
When Dhanell touched the crown, a riddle unfurled in his mind:
The beginning of Whenever, The end of Ever After, The start of an Age, The finale of every Moment, The first in History.
The answer came to them: Wrath.
We Are Wrath
At the palace’s main gates, crowned with the stag emblem, they tried the word. Nothing stirred.
But Frostbite’s keen ears caught a whisper from behind, from the garden towers themselves.
"We are Wrath."
He turned slowly. The towers - marked with the lions and stags they could not breach - seemed to watch them. The pieces were sliding into place, but the meaning… still out of reach.
Frostbite’s Thoughts
The dragonborn’s wings twitched with restless need. Every turn in this palace gave answers tangled in riddles, names layered in disguises. He wanted a foe to face, a clear enemy, something he could confront. Instead, the palace itself fought them with mystery.
But Frostbite had learned one thing: Wrath was not just an answer. It was something else. And it was in those towers.
| Session 1 | Session 27 | Session 28 | ||
| ◀◀ | ◀ | ▲ | ▶ | ▶▶ |
| Ashira Brolin Frostbite | Ashira Frostbite | Ashira Frostbite |
Updated on: 21:52
