pages/acl.cool/site/draft/umbral9.dj

# Umbral Gaze 9: Loose Threads

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The party's most recent adventure generates inevitable interest among the members of Lord Silverhand's house, and their report to her governmental complex sees them shuffled from guard to bureaucrat to weary mid-tier functionary, each with something to say about our heroes and their escapades. To the appropriate officials in turn, the party give the corpses of the first Deathkiss, of the Vampire thralls, and of the unfortunate parties that went before to the Red Wizard's keep. Eager to ditch the half-dead vampire crammed in his portable hole, Almuth is sure to stop by the dungeon where, for the reassurance and instruction of Ororon's new captors, he demonstrates the effects of his geas with a show; the cleric forces the freshly-released vampire to prostrate himself before Guard Commander Helsing and all benevolent divinities, to condemn the cult he serves and denounce the gods he worships. 

Finally in Lord Silverhand's company, Carmal explains what he learned by "identifying" Szass Tam's book. An acolyte of the Red Wizards authored the tome long ago, a peon, really, who, despite his genius in the field of necromancy and enchantment, lacked the political power necessary to keep his pet project funded. The acolyte was working on a spell, the "pinnacle of spellbinding", which was a total revision of "animate object" with the power to transfer the souls of living things between simple items. More than merely working on such magic, he completed it! But the material costs of performing the ritual were too high, and the wizard never had the chance to attempt his magic before superiors swooped in to shut it down. Were they afraid of wasting resources, or just of being shown up? Anyway, the party recognize most of the components and imagine that renowned heroes like themselves should have no real difficulty obtaining them, but a particular item, "soul fire"[^soulfire], stands out as _troublesome._ The book notes only that it can be found in an "incinerating mindscape", but the pages thereafter devolve into rambling, and then into emptiness.

Laeral will hold on to the book for now--- but not _too_ tightly, Carmal warns; the party may have need of it again quite soon. The word "spellbind" pinged Louisa's riddle in everyone's mind, and gears work once again to determine how their llama friend might be freed from Cheshira's curse. Soul transfer... surely that could be useful...

With such thoughts bouncing rowdily in his brain, Gottlob proffers a suggestion to the group--- to Louisa--- as they finally free themselves from the clutches of Lord Silverhand's complex and its bureaucratic apparatus. He knows through his associations with the Unblinking Patrol a woman who may be able to shed some light on the situation on Brog Burgest, on where specifically Cheshira held her prisoners and on just what work she was driving them to complete.

The party is in agreement--- more knowledge is never a bad thing in situations such as these--- and Gottlob leads a little procession down the winding streets of North Ward to the northern stretches of the Trades Ward, that little residential crescent between the unattainably expensive row houses of the most affluent neighborhoods and the commercial maze of the lower stretches (the latter being where Gottlob and his Order call home).

The party goes to see Mayola Ekris[^mayola] at her apartment, a strange, stubborn, but ingenious tiefling archivist of graceful middle age who makes occasion to interrupt the monotony of her _professional_ work with bouts of consultation for the Unblinking Patrol, whenever they have need of some higher-level extraplanar expertise. Waterdeep is a good town for tieflings, and she has a good life here.

They find her standing on her own roof, staring into the cloudless sky. She sways a little on the tiles there, as though to some slow music, moved by a changeable breeze. Party members can't help but imagine her slipping off the narrow roofline, and Gottlob shouts up to her, "Mayola? Come down from there; do you have a minute to talk!?". Lowering her gaze from the heavens to regard the party with raised eyebrows, the tiefling makes a noise between a sigh and a huff before disappearing through an open window to arrive mere seconds later on the street beside her interrupters.

After a round of introductions, Louisa explains the experience she had over Borg Burgest. Mayola's eyebrows go up again at the mention of a "cake mountain"--- and "oh, the llama too?"--- but she can see that to Louisa this is no joking matter, and the archivist keeps her incredulity in check as she invites the party inside to go over details more closely. The tiefling possesses certain instruments--- intricate, wirebound devices of her own invention--- with which perhaps, given further information, she can locate the hag's domain. Inside, she pulls a sheet of brass from under a cloth in the corner, several feet by a few, on which a smattering of bumps and pegs suggest technical applications, threads of copper running from point to point. A row of inputs decorates the bottom edge, and with each in a series of narrowing questions, Mayola turns or flips such a dial or switch. 

> Hmm... Summer Court Dominion, Titanias' domain? Mm, no, well yes. Maybe the Green Lord... somewhere out of the way, no doubt, no archfey... Ah, the fringe then. Nullock? Huh.. probably... Oh, yes. Nullock.

The threads bound an irregular polygon that shrinks with each move until at last a tiny region of feywild is demarcated on the field of her apparatus.

"Here", Mayola states, to the best of her reckoning, "you will find the blue fields and farmhouse you describe. They are most certainly in the Feywild--- perhaps it would be expeditious, if you all wish to return, to go via Louisa's planeshift. Having seen the place already, she should be able to get back."



[^mayola]: [Mayola Ekris](/writings/mayola/) is a friend and consultant to the Unblinking Patrol, an archivist in the Watchful Order of Magists and Protectors (WOMP).

[^soulfire]: What is "Soul Fire"?