19 Brussendar 835
After spending a few days in Calaloch and on the island of Bwuali, you returned to the Tide of Ruidus and set sail for Xarzith Kitril, a dragonborn settlement of refugees from the twice fallen Draconia. The Ruins of Draconia are your ultimate destination, seeking the next vestige that lies somewhere in the ruins.
The journey will take 6 days and you spent the first four working on restoring crew morale and getting everyone comfortable with the threats that now await you under Olentra’s hunting gaze.
On the fourth day, the pesky demon crew returned, hunting Applethorn, still called “the Ruiner” and seeking to outright kill him this time and not pulling out any stops. With the ship only cosmetically damaged, the crew morale dipped a touch but not too bad and you sailed on with the added layer of mystery around this obsession that demons seem to have with Applethorn.
Having survived the latest devilish assault, the crew of the Tide of Ruidus spent the afternoon debriefing and preparing to avoid the seemingly inevitable return of these devil’s as they continue to hunt Applethorn. You spent time with the crew as the day progressed before a surprise visitor appeared: Presumptious (Prezzie), Scrum’s sister. She found a spellbook that had been damaged and, when attempting to message Scrum, she accidentally teleported to her instead.
Further investigation by Cassie revealed that this book is just a basic spell listing rather an actual casters spellbook, meaning that for this 10 year old kid to have even cast it, let alone survived, she has to be some kind of magical savant. Further, a Detect Magic spell revealed that Prezzie has a massive halo of Divination magic and is currently affected by some type of enchantment. Further discussions with Prezzie revealed that the Crownsguard of the Empire have taken up posts at the Umptious Farm, providing guards after telling Scrum’s family that she was captured and held hostage by the Kryn Dynasty. The windmill is going well and increasing the harvest (though Scrum suspects this is a side affect of the Ruidium mining before it kills the soil), and Cerberus Assembly agents come by to check on it. Prezzie began to speak with them about the windmill which caused them to start to bring her toys and puzzles and, eventually, a high ranking Assembly mage named Dorlyn Hess came to the house with intricate puzzles and games. Additionally, the spellbook came from Gobstopper’s new boyfriend, a new delivery boy from Rexxentrum named Joffrey Vestar.
The party responded normal and casually to the information of this noose now wrapped around the Umptious farm, and none more so than Cassie who returned to her room, reeling with the implications of this development. She used the Mirror to look at Prezzie and saw that her form was hidden by the divination aura more than any thing. Then, she blacked out. Later, when Della checked on her, she saw that Cassie was writing furiously over the desk in Zhemnian and then shouting and fighting when she’s disturbed, also in Zhemnian. Della spent the evening with Cassie and both stayed up all night. When Cassie came back to herself, she realized that Ezekiel was in control of her for the last 10 hours.