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  1. Quests

KA19. The Verge

Continuing their conflict against Kalah (see KA18. Executing the Plan); with their energy running low from a full two days without sleep, the party made one final push to take out the Oni bodyguard without killing him.  Arc cast Bull's Strength of Elias Minch, giving the Monk enough strength to grapple Kalah, before stunning him.  This let Selene d'Lyrandar step in with the Dreamlily potion that Elias Minch had brewed previously.  The stunned Oni was powerless to resist the potion being poured down his throat, and he fell unconscious as the stun effect ended.

This gave the party the opportunity to escape; covering their tracks, they ended further towards the Verge.  They stopped for a night's rest, before heading into the thick forest.  They spent much of the next day picking through the thick branches and vines, before finally coming to a clearing.  They stopped to rest there, while examining an ancient statue of a coiled serpent with wings that was at the centre of the clearing.  However none of the party knew enough about religion to identify it; Shiaali told them it was a creature that the villagers of Borutesh sometimes told stories of, but she had never seen one.

Their rest was interrupted by a strange creature made out of vines crashing out of the forest from the direction that they had entered.  Selene d'Lyrandar hung back to help the exhausted Shiaali, while Arc, Elias Minch and Smith stepped forward to engage the creature.  They quickly realised that it was some form of elemental, as it shifted between various forms; it's appearance would sometimes mimic fire, water, air or earth depending on what it was doing at the time.  The battle was short and brutal; but in the end, it fell to an onslaught from Elias Minch into its earthly form.  It cracked and fell to the floor dead, before reverting to a plant-like structure.

The party continued on, leaving the Verge just before they stopped for their next rest.  The next morning, their breakfast was interrupted by a passing spice merchant sitting down to join them.  At first the merchant seemed to be quite friendly and jovial, but Elias Minch quickly became suspicious of how questioning the merchant was being, as he kept pushing them about who they were and where they were going.  Arc suddenly realised that she had no memory of waking up that morning and getting up; suspecting this was a dream, she attacked the merchant with her rapier.  Suddenly the landscape around them changed, as the dreamscape turned into a fiery inferno.  The merchant shifted to the form of Shiaali, but they recognised that this was the spirit Aktavi controlling the form.  It threatened them for taking her host, and told them that they would not leave Riedra with Shiaali.  Then with a start, they all awoke.

Their journey continued across the desert that they found themselves in for another day.  That night they found the sky lit up with a bright aurora; Elias Minch and Selene d'Lyrandar mentioned that they were aware that these could sometimes be seen in the sky far to the north of Khorvaire, but they did not understand how this was possible so far south.  The next morning, they finally arrived at the beach where they had agreed to meet Kes d'Lyrandar and his ship the Wayward Cuttle.  They met Kes d'Lyrandar and his first mate Jez Dovetail on the beach; Kes d'Lyrandar headed back to the ship to prepare it to sail, while Jez Dovetail asked how their trip had been.  But as soon as the Captain boarded the ship, Jez Dovetail's features changed, and in front of them stood Ilir, the changeling that had interviewed them as they had left Dar Ulatesh.  He cried out that they would not take Shiaali, and leapt into attack.