📜 Session Overview

For a little while, the desert offered them peace.

At Broj's family estate beneath the punishing sun of Amonkhet, the companions rested beneath a roof that felt impossibly warm after the crystal tombs of Hearthglass. Yet even surrounded by food, family, and open skies, none of them could fully escape what they carried. Broj still shared his mind with the childlike remnant born from the joining of ancient dream-beings, a presence that watched through his eyes, borrowed his voice, and seemed to understand the world through fragments of memories that were not entirely its own.

Around the family table, the party attempted to decide which unfinished promise would claim them next.

Sorina and Sinora still carried the brands linking them to the Oni, their father, and the mysterious Vespera. Loid still needed lodestones from the Sliver Hive before the living vessel could safely follow them between realms. Somewhere, the wandering Mimic Tower continued crossing planes under its own mysterious power. The undead dwarven city remained unexplored, while the northern settlement shown to them by Nymis waited beneath the grim description of a city built upon slavery.

It was the last of those paths that drew them.

Sinora urged caution, unwilling to charge into a foreign society without understanding what they were walking into. The word slavery was simple; the realities behind it might not be. Was it a single city's cruelty, an accepted practice throughout Theros, or something stranger than either? What would they judge, and how far were they prepared to go once they had passed judgment?

Aedric Vale argued that no answer would be found around a comfortable table. The truth had to be investigated, not theorized into existence. They would study the masters as carefully as the enslaved, look beyond whatever performance was arranged for outsiders, and determine whether liberation required questions, blades, or both.

Zar'Keth distilled the plan into its most dangerous possibility: they would travel to the city, investigate its people, and — depending on what they uncovered — perhaps overthrow the entire place.

No one pretended that would be easy.

Before the debate could continue, Broj's father placed a heavy hand upon his shoulder and pointed toward the horizon. A vast black cloud was advancing across the desert, the unmistakable herald of the local god of locusts. The peaceful morning shattered into hurried preparations. Dragons were gathered, companions called indoors, and Broj embraced his family one by one before promising that he would return when he could. Then, before his father could finish warning him against leaving in such weather, Broj vanished between realms.

Warwick Willows, realizing he had forgotten the proper farewells, briefly returned to thank the bewildered family for their hospitality before disappearing again.

The party emerged upon Theros near the cavern where the aboleth had fallen. Above the old battlefield, Loid hovered like a living shadow against the sky. Yet before they could board, a scream came plummeting from the heavens.

A small figure tumbled toward the earth at lethal speed.

Broj surged forward, expanded to his towering size, and caught the stranger against his chest moments before impact. When the dust settled, the party found themselves staring at a shaken gnome clinging desperately to the certainty of solid ground.

He introduced himself as Hanifer "Hans" Flatcap.

Hans explained that he owed Vyr a life debt and that Vyr, in his usual manner, had decided to collect by dropping him directly into the party's path. A tiny fey dragon named Fern curled near him, beautiful, proud, and entirely unapologetic for failing to catch him during the fall.

Despite the dramatic arrival, Hans proved to be more than a misplaced bard. He had crossed strange realms, worked aboard ships, survived the dangers of Shandalar, and knew precisely where the lodestones sought by Loid could be found. Unfortunately, he also knew enough about the Sliver Hive to hate the very thought of returning.

When Loid descended and introduced himself, Hans first mistook him for an illithid lord. The living ship corrected him, shook his hand, admitted that the gnome looked delicious, and politely promised not to eat him. Porthos soon manifested in his towering skeletal form, leaving Hans to realize that the strange band he had joined traveled with a sentient nautiloid, an ancient undead guardian, several dragons, and a growing number of entities living inside one another's minds.

It was, by any reasonable measure, an alarming first impression.

Travel aboard Loid did little to calm him. Tentacles lifted the party onto the deck while Hans, terrified of heights, attempted to convince himself that he was aboard an ordinary ship sailing across an ordinary ocean. Loid responded by creating a captain's chair at the very front of the vessel and eventually making the floor beneath the gnome transparent. Between screams and fainting spells, Hans learned that instructions given to Loid needed to be chosen with care.

When told to travel east and "hit a city," Loid crossed the landscape at tremendous speed and nearly carried the party directly into a mountain. Only after Broj clarified that they wanted to find a city rather than physically collide with one did the vessel reverse course at a more manageable pace.

During the journey, Zar'Keth examined the seven relics Aedric Vale had taken from beneath Hearthglass, while Hans filled the vessel with the deep drone of his instrument. To everyone's surprise, Loid answered with rhythmic vibrations of his own, the entire living ship resonating with the music as they crossed the skies of Theros.

Eventually, two metallic structures shimmered beyond a distant line of hills. Believing they might have found the settlement described by Nymis, the party asked Loid to lower them into the forest so they could approach unseen. The moment their feet touched the earth, Hans kissed the ground.

The forest appeared healthy at first. Tracks from deer and smaller animals crossed the undergrowth, but Sinora soon recognized what was missing. There were no birds in the canopy. No wings disturbed the branches. Nothing flew above the trees. She warned the others to keep their dragons close.

As they climbed through the woods, a white unicorn stepped into Sinora's path. It struck the earth with its hoof and barred the way forward. Whether it was a manifestation of Nymis or one of her messengers, the meaning was unmistakable — something beyond the hill was dangerous.

Before they could decide whether the warning meant retreat or caution, a metallic shriek echoed from far behind them. Trees cracked. Something enormous thrashed through the forest, accompanied by the sound of twisting metal. Loid was under attack.

Broj seized Warwick Willows and called upon the strength flowing through his bond with his dragon. For the first time, that connection answered through his own body. His arm became almost weightless at the moment of release, and Warwick Willows was hurled through the forest like a living missile, smashing through branches and sailing nearly a mile beyond the clearing.

For one breathless moment, he saw the battlefield below. Pieces of Loid lay scattered across the broken earth. Black-and-red gore painted the trees, while the living vessel's separated limbs clawed through the ruin, dragging its own body back together. Whatever had attacked had been torn apart. Loid, injured but alive, consumed its remains to rebuild himself.

Then another great shape descended — a vast circular predator with winglike edges and a whipping tail. Porthos appeared beneath it. The creature's scream ended abruptly as it was severed in midair, raining black blood and pale flesh across everyone below.

Seeking reassurance, Warwick Willows reached directly into Porthos's mind. Instead, he saw giants lying dead across forgotten battlefields. He saw a mountain city burning. He felt decades of memories rush through him in a single instant, an unbearable weight of war, death, and endurance. The connection hurled him backward with searing psychic pain, and he finally understood why Porthos had never casually spoken through another person's thoughts. There was simply too much inside him.

When the danger had passed, Loid continued stitching himself together, and the party returned toward the hills. The strange presence inside Broj briefly took control, turning his eyes gold and following the fading trails of mana through the forest. It spoke with the simplicity of a child and claimed that it remembered having a mother and father, though those memories belonged to beings far older than Broj could comprehend.

The party pushed onward. The first chittering creature found them before they reached the ridge — oily skin, hooked arms, a head that flattened to reveal milky eyes and rows of teeth, membranes between multiple sets of arms that allowed it to glide. When it began creeping toward Hans, Sinora warned Broj through their mental link. His spear struck before the creature could pounce.

Pinned through the shoulder, it unleashed a piercing cry powerful enough to rattle bone. Sinora charged and leapt while Hans summoned a rush of wind beneath her, carrying her blade high enough to slash across its chest as it took flight. Warwick Willows followed with a newly altered spell, weaving fire and lightning together into spiraling rays. Sorina and Zar'Keth answered with scorching rays of their own, filling the darkening forest with streaks of flame. The creature collapsed from the air and spread across the ground like a boneless black sheet.

When Broj and Sinora cut it apart to make certain it was dead, its acidic blood erupted across them. The lesson was immediate and painful. Zar'Keth quickly strengthened the group with a protective field, while the others concluded that the thing had likely been a scout or trained hunting beast.

More chittering shapes wandered through the forest as dusk approached, but under Sinora's guidance the party slipped around them without another battle. High overhead, an immense cloaker passed across the dying sunlight — an adult or ancient specimen, far larger than anything that should have been hunting upon the surface. The metallic "silos" began to seem less like storehouses and more like roosts.

Another discovery soon darkened the purpose of the place further. A long vessel crossed the horizon, hovering through the power of an air elemental trapped within a glowing central ring. To Aedric Vale, Warwick Willows, Zar'Keth, and Hans, the construction was recognizable as one of the more brutal forms of airship — a craft powered not by cooperation with an elemental, but by binding and enslaving it. Perhaps the settlement they sought did not limit its chains to flesh and blood.

When Sinora reached telepathically toward Hans and Zar'Keth, both heard something beneath her voice — a long, rasping echo that did not belong to her. Cold wind crawled across their necks, and unseen pressure twisted behind their shoulders. Horrified, Sinora severed the connection and raised the walls of her mind. Whatever had been placed within the twins' brands was still listening.

Night fell as the party climbed. Those with darkvision guided those without it, moving silently between the hunting calls of the gliding creatures. At last they reached the crest of the ridge and discovered that there was no gentle slope beyond it. They stood atop a cliff overlooking a vast valley carved into the mountains.

An unnatural darkness smothered the basin below. Purple light glowed from its center. Across the distant stone walls, hundreds of cloakers clung like living shadows, shifting restlessly against the rock. Far beneath them, a long airship rested beside the settlement. Massive cages were being unloaded from its deck and dragged across the stone. Aedric Vale reached outward with his Realmstrider senses and felt hundreds of living essences scattered throughout the valley. None carried the promise of a Flare. They were simply people — countless lives gathered beneath the darkness.

Then the drums began.

A great bonfire erupted below, illuminating a colossal goblinoid figure seated upon a throne of stone. Even from miles away, the creature appeared more than twenty feet tall. It reached into one of the cages, lifted a struggling captive between its fingers, and raised the helpless figure toward its mouth. The party heard the crunch echo across the valley. Laughter followed.

Around the throne, more cages were dragged toward the flames, while the walls themselves stirred beneath the wings of the roosting cloakers. The companions had found the city they came to investigate. And as they watched its ruler feed, the question was no longer whether slavery existed there. The question was how many people they could save when the valley finally erupted into war.

⚔️ Key Events

• The Locust Storm: A god's herald cloud advances across Amonkhet, ending the party's rest and forcing a hasty departure. Broj says goodbye to his family; Warwick returns a second time to do the same.
• Hans Falls From the Sky: Vyr cashes in a life debt by dropping gnome planewalker Hanifer "Hans" Flatcap from altitude directly into the party's path. Број catches him mid-air using his large form. Hans introduces his fey dragon Fern and reveals he knows where Loid's lodestones are hidden.
• Loid Takes Directions Literally: Told to "hit a city," Loid drives at full speed toward a mountain. The party renegotiates instructions and continues east at a manageable pace. During transit, Hans plays his didgeridoo and Loid responds with rhythmic vibrations throughout his hull.
• The Silent Forest: Sinora notices the total absence of aerial animals — no birds, nothing flying. She warns the party to keep dragons close. A white unicorn appears in the path and strikes a hoof-warning before vanishing.
• Loid Under Attack: Something massive attacks Loid from behind. Broj channels his dragon bond for the first time, hurling Warwick Willows through the canopy as a living missile. Porthos kills a second cloaker mid-air, showering the group in black gore. Loid consumes his attacker to rebuild himself.
• Warwick Enters Porthos's Mind: Seeking reassurance, Warwick reaches directly into Porthos's thoughts. He is instantly overwhelmed by decades of memories — burning mountain cities, dead giants, endless war — and is hurled back with searing psychic pain. He understands now why Porthos never speaks through others.
• The Childlike Presence Surfaces: The entity inside Broj briefly takes control with golden eyes, following fading mana trails through the forest. It speaks like a child, claiming fragmented memories of a mother and father from beings far older than Broj.
• First Combat — Underdark Scout: A chittering creature with acidic blood attacks the group. The combined fire of Sinora, Hans, Warwick, Sorina, and Zar'Keth brings it down. Broj and Sinora are splashed with acid when they cut apart the body. Lesson learned.
• The Enslaved Airship: An airship powered by a bound air elemental crosses the horizon. Warwick and Hans recognize it as a barbaric construction — a vessel kept aloft not by cooperation but by enslavement of the elemental within.
• The Brand Listens: When Sinora opens a telepathic channel to share observations, a cold rasping echo answers beneath her voice — the mark on the twins' necks is still active and aware. Sinora cuts the connection immediately.
• The Valley Revealed: Reaching the cliff edge at nightfall, the party looks down into a mountain-carved valley filled with unnatural darkness, hundreds of roosting cloakers, and a grounded airship unloading massive cages. Aedric Vale scans hundreds of living essences — none bearing the promise of a Flare. Then the drums start, a bonfire erupts, and a twenty-foot goblinoid seated on a stone throne reaches into a cage and feeds.

⚔️ Combat Encounters

👥 NPCs Encountered

🔍 Important Discoveries

💰 Loot & Rewards

• Seven Relics from Hearthglass: Zar'Keth ritually identified these for Aedric Vale over the course of the Loid journey. Full details held by Aedric Vale.
• New Party Member — Hans Flatcap: Planewalker, wind controller, navigator, and reluctant but willing combatant. Brings Fern, knowledge of lodestone locations, and a didgeridoo that makes Loid happy.
• Lodestone Intelligence: Hans knows precisely where Loid's lodestones are. The Sliver Hive. He hates that he knows this.

✨ Character Moments

🖼️ Session Images

📝 DM Notes

Hans was introduced via Vyr's life debt — a deliberate drop into the party rather than a gentle meeting. The lodestone hook gives Hans an immediate mechanical purpose while the Sliver Hive callback rewards long-term players. Loid's literalism ("hit a city") was played for genuine comedy and worked perfectly as a party tone-setter for the new member. The forest approach used escalating discovery beats: no birds → unicorn warning → Loid attack → cloaker ambush → enslaved airship → brand echo → cliff reveal → valley → drums → feeding. Session ends on the valley reveal as a hard cliffhanger. Next session is planned as an extended eight-hour session to handle the full valley arc. Party needs a group name.

🎭 Looking Ahead