The Wrathbreakers have uncovered a secret cult of humans who work with deepfolk, at least one of whom also uses deep magic. To do so or to work with deepfolk in any way is a deep and terrible heresy, believed impossible for 1000 years. The Wrathbreakers found this cult and its sorcerous leader under the Stronghold of Ar, in an ancient temple that is likely of deepfolk design, but they were previously attacked by very similar people in the Freeport of Gon. They suspect, therefore, that the cult they have uncovered in Ar is only a cell of some greater network, and that there must be other deep sorcerers like Anyara, the woman they killed in the ancient halls beneath Ar.

The Wrathbreakers also stumbled upon and killed a strange beast in the Freehold of El, just a day’s boat travel from Ar, and every place they visited in the Valley of Gon seems to have academics devoted to the study of ancient deepfolk ruins, and tales of ancient deepfolk caverns under their towns and farms. Is it a coincidence then that they would find a deep sorcerer and a new cult here? Is this some aberration of human morality that has arisen in this fractured, warring land, where the normal moral constraints on human endeavour have been weakened by long years of war and “freedom”? Or did this cult travel here searching for something? Were they seeking the strange beast that the Wrathbreakers killed outside of El?

After they defeated Argalt, Warlord of Ar, as he lay dying in a pool of arcane vitriol, he told them that the deep sorcerer Anyara had come to his stronghold some years ago and offered to work with him in exchange for his acceptance of and occasional support for her activities. This suggested that the cult and its deep sorcerer had been formed somewhere else, and came to Gon on a quest of some kind. The Wrathbreakers realized that they needed to carefully investigate Anyara’s belongings, to see if they could find any clues as to her origins, the nature of her cult, or her goals. So, after they had rested for an hour or so and confirmed the Stronghold of Ar was secure and under Elizabeth 4th’s control, they climbed the tower to investigate Anyara’s room.

The Sorcerer’s Haven

Anyara’s room was at the top of a flight of spiral stairs that passed the throne room and rose two more levels. The stairs curled up to a kind of gallery, which had arrow slits giving views over the stronghold gates and a wide window overlooking the castle roof. From here they followed the stairs up one more level to a narrow landing with a solid wooden door.

At the door Itzel sensed that there must be a magical trap, which would be activated by the key in the door and which she did not know how to defuse. This would unleash an extremely destructive wave of deep magic that would roll down the stairs and enervate anyone within a wide distance. Although she could not defuse it, Itzel guessed that it would not be activated if the door was opened from the inside, and decided to see if she could access the room from the window. She descended to the lower gallery and cast a flight spell on herself, using it to travel from the window of the lower gallery to a matching window in Anyara’s room. Here she took a risk, opening the window and slipping into the room without triggering any traps. She opened the door with no trouble, and they wedged it open and entered the room unhurt. Anyara had clearly been much more concerned about people within the castle prying into her affairs than she had been about intruders from outside.

Anyara’s room was a simple, comfortable affair typical of a woman living in high status in a stronghold. It had a comfortable bed, a desk, closets with women’s clothes, a small make up desk under the window, and a comfortable rug from the western isles. The only sign that she was not a court lady was a large bookcase of slightly esoteric texts, a map of the Valley of Gon on one wall, and a sinister silver mirror set on the wall next to an expensive scroll calendar. They checked everything for traps, and then searched diligently for clues.

The desk

The desk had a long, narrow drawer in the centre and a small cupboard on one side, both locked. They opened them using one of the keys from the collection they had found on Anyara’s body. In the drawer they found:

  • A deep magic wand, identical to the wand she had used to attack them in the subterranean temple
  • A small rolled-up scroll containing an original of a famous human poem about vengeance, which could probably be sold
  • A small silver key

They destroyed the wand, and searched the cupboard, where they found a powerful healing potion and a sandalwood box. Inside the box they found:

  • A single printed note, exactly the same as those which had been used to organize criminal activities in Estona, which simply said “This is how I do it. What else did you expect of me?”
  • A fragment of text on selkie
  • A list of magical reagents, which made no sense at all to them. The text was written on a piece of yellowed paper that was obviously very old and had been torn from a larger book. In the margins of the text was a note that had been hand written more recently and simply noted “In the copy, make clear that the sand cannot be from a beach, and the water should be pure”
  • A faded scroll, rolled up, in which the small printed note had been secreted, which was an advertisement for a display of magical experiments held about 20 years earlier at the Academy in Estona. This advertisement promised exciting developments in sun magic, and an inset piece of text in a separate bubble promised “Apprentices Free”

The fragment of text on selkie was also old, part of a larger document on some soft leather that had been torn or taken, and appeared to have sustained some damage. It was written in clear, careful writing in a slightly archaic script, which started mid-sentence and read as follows:

… speaks of both power and control, and of transition between salt and storm. The Selkie is a creature of flux and transformation, but like all fey its magic has a special power over humans.  It will not harm you provided you remain neutral in all dealings, but will strike with great power if disturbed. Like all fey, its memory is long and its vengeance bitter. It is worth disturbing though. What can one do with the essence of this liminal creature? Bind both salt, sun and storm, and combine or interweave all forms of power – such is the strength of the selkie’s connection to flux and change. Few know of this property of its essence, but the proper preparation of the hide and organs of selkie offers unique power to harness flux and merge powers together. But beware! The power is not easily contained! Without proper combination of tinctures of violet, beach sand,  sea water, and flowers withered in the winter sun, any such powers shared and combined will inevitably come loose of their caster’s control. Little is known of the consequences of this, but the selkie is a malevolent force of nature, so do not expect the backlash to spare the caster or their immediate associates.

No author was ascribed to this document. They could make little sense of the documents bundled together in this box, but Itzel did note that Anyara had appeared to be in her late 30s, and would likely have been old enough to be an apprentice 20 years ago, when the advertisement was printed. Had she been an apprentice in Estona, who subsequently turned to evil, but retained some connection in Estona? Was the Puppet Master, who organized crimes by printed note, an old friend, comrade or lover of Anyara’s? And if so, had she told this Puppet Master about the use of selkie ingredients, but misled him or her slightly about the correct method for their preparation? They would need to investigate this when they returned to Estona.

The bookcase

The bookcase held a collection of largely standard texts used by Astrologers across Hadun, along with a few novels and collections of poetry and some standard histories of Gon. However, in amongst these traditional shelf-fillers the Wrathbreakers found a group of three texts on the construction of Golems, and a small box of magical scrolls.

The Golem Creation texts were entitled Elucidation of the Manufacture of Mechanistic Humanity, and were collected in three volumes sub-titled Theory and Ethics of Mecha-humanity, Principles and Practice of Rudimentary Quickening, and Mechanical Recipes in Sun, Salt and Storm. Although these titles were slightly sinister, those familiar with the writing of magical texts would be familiar with titles of this kind: for example, text books on specific spells and rituals would often be labeled “X recipes in Sun”[1] or “X recipes in Storm”, with X representing a discipline or task (“Lumic recipes in Sun” for example would detail spells of light and shadow). Texts detailing the theory and ethics of magical practice were also common, particularly where spells could be mis-applied or misused by error or design. Nonetheless, magic for the animation of matter was rare, and would offer powerful enhancements of ordinary life if properly used. Anyara’s possession of such a textbook was something of a mystery, however, since she was a practitioner of deep magic, which focused on the domination of the minds of other living things and the animation of the dead.

They briefly considered the possibility that Anyara had created flesh golems that were able to change their form, or had made multiple flesh golems in the form of dwarf, elf and wildling, and that the Puppet Master in Estona had used these golems as messengers to organize his or her schemes, but Itzel quickly searched the Principles and confirmed that flesh could not be quickened. During her search, however, she found a dedication a few pages into the text, written in an unknown hand, that was much newer than the original text and simply said “A parting gift, I will always be yours.” She searched a little more and found that the third book contained a single missing page, which perfectly matched the fragment of recipes in the sandalwood box. Unfortunately later that week, when Itzel decided to check that section of the book again to see which recipe the missing page had been torn from, she spilt some wine on the text and obliterated the majority of the recipe, so that none of them could determine what recipe Anyara had torn from the book and relocated in the sandalwood box, with instructions to transcribe it falsely.

The box of scrolls was a finely made wooden container with a crystal lid that could be unlocked with the small silver key from the desk. It held three scrolls laid side by side and bound separately into tight rolls using old, faded silk ribbons. These scrolls had clearly been written very long ago and were extremely fragile, and were so old that Itzel could not determine what magic they contained. She could tell, however, that once these scrolls were opened they were so old that the ink with which they were written would soon fade. She also guessed that they would be fragile, and any attempt to read them would need to be done carefully lest they crumble or break. For now they left the scrolls unopened, and committed to read them when they had a safe place and time to do so in Estona.

The Chest

The chest was also untrapped, and held Anyara’s magic items:

  • A cloak of defense (+1 defense to whoever wears it)
  • A strange potion that when taken reduces wound threshold by 5 but increases the character’s arcane skill (in any discipline) by 2 and increases all mental attributes by 1 for 1 hourr or scene
  • A belt of fortitude that increase strain threshold by 1
  • A collection of fine jewelry worth 5000 coin

They also found a potion rack that held multiple valuable potions.

The map

The map was a large, detailed map of the Valley of Gon, framed and hanging on the wall over Anyara’s desk. By itself it was probably worth a lot of money, but it had been slightly disfigured with 7 bronze pins, the head of each of which was a number, that had been stuck into the map at 7 locations. The map had some towns they knew marked in black for Freeports and Grey for Freeholds, and a few towns they did not know marked in the same way. Beneath the map was a handwritten list of 7 points, which they assumed corresponded to the points marked on the map with pins:

  1. Anzad (1) – The Principium
  2. Verity (3) – Archives of Agaz
  3. Numenor (1) – Aveld the Foul??
  4. Greel (5) – The Song of the Seraphim
  5. Anders (1) – Rumours of a Seal
  6. Gandaz (3) – Ruins of the First
  7. Nirek (1) – Archives of Askelian

They recognized Anzad, Greel, Ganaz and Nirek as common names in the Archipelago, and guessed the rest were too. Were these the locations of agents of the cult, investigating historical locations or items of value to the cult?

The mirror

The mirror was placed on a wall away from the cosmetics table, and was not high enough quality to be useful for aesthetics in any case. Bao Tap touched it and immediately realized it was steeped in sinister purpose. With a simple act of will he was able to identify the location of the silver platter that they had been given as a token of good faith for their “spy”, Emily, and so they realized that they had been tracked from the moment they had left El on their mission to attack Ar. With further investigation it became obvious that the mirror was a product of deep magic, and that although it might have many uses, they should destroy it. This they did, immediately. Next to the mirror hung a bone plaque engraved with a benediction in deepfolk language, beneath which was written in normal human script:

Good luck. May the Host guide you. I welcome your return to Leminog. A.

Obviously Anyara had a contact, A, in the far northeast. Was this another cultist? Did they communicate by the mirror?

The Calendar

The calendar was an expensive scroll calendar, opened to the current and following week and hanging from a special mount with a pen and ink pot in a cradle on the wall next to it. This kind of calendar was not normally available to the ordinary people of the Archipelago, and was more typical of the type of calendar that might be found in a Harbourmaster’s office or a senior official’s home. It was made of solid, high-quality parchment bound carefully in a roll around high-quality staves, and carefully illuminated with high quality inks in a tasteful mixture of sepia, gold and dark reds. Every few weeks the scroll was embossed with the name of its creator, a company in Rokun called “Arcadium Calendars”. In the visible two weeks were two handwritten notes: One indicating that the 31st of Still (one week from the current date) would be an event known as “the alignment” and another indicating the 3rd Thaw was the date to “Begin study.” Unrolling it further, the Wrathbreakers found that the calendar ended in two months, at the end of the current season of Salt, and a new one would have been needed by then – perhaps, given the company was in Rokun, it had been ordered already? There was a cross on the 14th Thawing, three weeks from the current date, but no account of what that cross might mean. The only other noticeable feature of the calendar was a single strange symbol on the 31st Still, where “Alignment 1” was written. This symbol was embossed onto the calendar in the gold ink of the calendar’s makers, not written there by Anyara. Typically such symbols would be indicative of important celestial dates of relevance to the calendar’s purpose – a season’s end, for example, the likely beginning of heavy rains, a propitious time for a wedding or other special event, or a time of particular activity on the sun shard, but this symbol meant nothing to any of them. They would need to speak to the calendar company to learn its meaning.

The telescope

Bao Tap had one theory, however. A small telescope stood on the window sill, its lens housing pointing up at the ceiling. Bao Tap theorized that this telescope was being used to track a celestial body that was due to align with something on the 31st Still, in 7 days’ time. He proposed that they take a week to rest in the town, and every night turn the lens housing down its pivot, not moving the legs of the tripod but assuming that they were placed in the position of the axis on which the alignment could be viewed from Anyara’s window. Were they to do this they might get a sense of what this alignment was for, without having to visit Rokun and ask the calendar makers.

They followed this path. Everyone was injured and exhausted, and Elizabeth 4th had offered them the chance to rest as long as they wanted under her care. They spent the week relaxing, studying Anyara’s documents, searching the room again, and regularly scanning the sky. On the 31st they confirmed that there was a star on the axis of the telescope, but unfortunately at the end of a viewing session Itzel knocked the tripod so that it moved slightly, and was unable to locate the star again[2]. They would need to find an astronomer to whom she could report their observations in order to be sure which star they were looking at, but this would not be difficult to do, either in Estona or even in the Freeport of Gon[3].

Rest and conclusions

After a week in Ar the Wrathbreakers had recovered from their wounds, thoroughly studied everything they could find, and discussed the results of their investigations. They had stumbled upon a conspiracy with profound implications, which they did not think was limited to Gon. This conspiracy involved a secret human cult or organization, which they called the Deep Cult, that was in contact with deepfolk and whose leaders seemed to be able to use deep magic. This Cult had been found in Ar but they did not believe it was limited just to Ar, or even to Gon, and likely it had at least a connection in Rokun, the capital of Hadun, where the calendar was made, and in the wild peninsula of Leminog where someone called “A” appeared to be waiting for Anyara’s return. The leader of the Deep Cult in Ar, Anyara, had come here from somewhere else and may have been an apprentice Astrologer in Estona 20 years ago, where they suspected she had made contact with, and still worked with, for or over the Astrologer they had come to refer to as the Puppet Master. She may have given that Puppet Master information on the use of selkie body parts for magical creations, but had deliberately misled him about the method of preparation of those body parts. She also had, or was working with, agents who were distributed around the Valley of Gon looking for clues about some ancient secrets. They sought something called “The Principium”, were delving into two archives, and were also seeking something called a “seal” and something else that might be a poem or lost story about an object, place or person called “The Seraphim”. They also appeared to serve, worship or owe alliance to a thing called “the Host”, which must be some form of supernatural power. It was possible that all of these secrets were somehow connected to the stars: Anyara had an expensive calendar that spoke of an “alignment”, she had a telescope that pointed in a specific direction, and the last time the Wrathbreakers had encountered Deepfolk in force those Deepfolk had been on a mission to destroy an observatory and despoil all its knowledge, though they appeared to have missed a poem that a desperate Astrologer had rubbed off of a blackboard before the Deepfolk completed their destruction of the observatory. It seemed clear that there was a sinister conspiracy stretching across the entire main island of the Archipelago, involving deepfolk and a human Deep Cult, and possibly reaching as high up as the stars themselves and as far back in time as the prehistory of human activity in the Archipelago.

What did it all mean? What were the deepfolk and their human allies trying to do? And what were the Wrathbreakers going to do about it?

fn1: The astute reader here will notice an allusion to modern engineering and physics, where we can buy the classic texts Numerical Recipes in C [or Fortran, or …]

fn2: Itzel rolled two beautifully timed despairs this session, one on the attempt to learn which golem recipe the reagents were from, and one on the attempt to find this star. Well done Itzel! She also rolled 8 successes and a triumph on another roll, so there is no pity for her from these quarters.

fn3: This will, however, mean that someone outside their immediate group knows what they are looking for …