15 Kythorn 1491
The next morning, Phee attempts to fish while the other two look on. Lamorna and Elidon appear. Both Phee and Mell are ecstatic, one excitedly waving a hello and the other playing a merry tune on their lute.
They offer greetings and Yndrus gets straight to business and starts asking after how to stop the Hourglass Coven. With the added help of Mell, the two manage to get a bare bones story of what happened to Elidon and how he was trapped.
The Alicorns know that the horns of their kind can be used to manipulate time, but not how. Phee begs the help of the Alicorn and he hesitatingly says yes, but he needs time.
The beginnings of a plan form, to get to Yon and find Amidor, known by Lamorna and based there. Yndrus pulls Squirt out of his pack and starts talking to him about guiding the party, offering the Boggle Oil as a lubricant. Clapperclaw happily starts feeding Squirt the oil.
Squirt describes Yon as mountainous, with heavy and persistent thunderstorms. The party has been warned to stay close to the oil can, lest they be lost in the fog separating the different lands.
They follow Squirt for what seems like a long time, huddled together in the fog. Eventually they find themselves at the exit of a mountain pass, looking ahead to a mountainside, dark sky, thunderclouds, howling wind, lighting illuminating a distant pinnacle of rock boasting a foreboding castle.
Squirt nestles into Clapperclaw to hide from the weather as the party observes the castle.
Squirt identifies the castle as Endelyn’s theatre. He’s afraid of the statues there, they sound similar to Satyr’s, but not quite.
He also describes a circle of standing stones outside the castle. But sadly, his knowledge is sparse as he spent little time in this land.
As they travel along a rocky path, they come across a throne carved into a boulder. An inscription reads, something, but nobody really pays attention. Mell rushes forward to sit on the throne. As her butt hits the surface, she starts to feel drowsy and cold.
About a minute in, Phee notices Mell’s eyes start to glaze over and lose awareness. She reads the inscription:
I am a traveller from a distant land.
My name is Mazikoth, Keeper of Stars.
Sit on my throne, disciple, and unravel.
But Phee takes little mind, pouting she didn’t make it to the throne first.
Unaware of her surroundings, Mell has a vision. Seeing bright lights in the distance, moving through space, moving towards them. Time passes, other lights appear, and move past her, like she’s falling toward a faraway star.
Hurtling through space, the star gets closer and closer, filling her vision entirely. Impacting the surface of the star, Mell jerks out of the vision with a start. As she awakens, she feels a sensation of extreme pressure on her mind, trying to force its way in. It breaks her defences and at that moment Mell has a flash of insight; what’s trying to enter her mind is knowledge. She finds herself proficient in Survival.
As Mell shakes her head clear, Phee tries to bribe the throne with blood, saliva, and flowers.. none work.
As the party stands there, the party spots two figures in the distance. An elf, a dandelion, and a bee buzzing around the dandy lion.
The dandy draws their rapier in a defensive pose, and Yndrus waves non threateningly. The dandy matches the description of Amidor.
The bee buzzes and Phee tries to mimic it. Mell and Yndrus call out to Amidor by name. The dandy is suspicious but seems open to conversation.
The party fills Amidor in on their adventures, name dropping and such. There’s no audio response, but the rapier is lowered. “I am a guide in theory, but honour dictates.”
Apparently dandy is helping their elf friend (who has no shadow), find their “other half”.
Phee notices the lack of shadow and hides behind Amidor (those without a shadow in the fae realm are shunned). Phee soothes her and asks for her story. Amidor tells it for her. A hag removed her shadow with scissors and imprisoned her sister, Glister.
Mell offers an exchange; help them free the sister for their help in getting around Endelyn unscathed and lead the party to the palace.
Phee asks after the bee, whose name is Pollenella, a queen bee on the run from a tyrannical beekeeper.
Amidor offers shelter from the rain to further discuss things with the party.
Gleam and Glister are the living embodiment of the Sun and Moon. Endelyn Moongrave believes her own demise will occur during an eclipse. Since there’s no moon here, she views an eclipse of symbolic. So she decided to separate the twins in order to forestall her own doom.
Gleam is the embodiment of the Moon. Upon discovering the party has been to the Witchlight Carnival, Gleam trusts the party. She has spent some time in Yon and knows of potential allies. There are clans in the mountains, Korreds.
She describes them to a tee the statues that Squirt fears. They are associated with the earth, their hair the strength of iron, coiled and ropy. They gather and dance at the standing stones. Phee recognises the race and confirms what they are, creatures of the earth and strong in their emotions.
They learn more, that the brother of Burly has been enslaved to perform at Endelyn’s morbid theatre. The party mentions this and Gleam is thrilled; this meeting is obviously fate.
Quietly, Gleam, mentions one more soul, not in the castle, but trapped none the less. An elf (Alagarthas) who made a bargain and now finds himself unable to escape. He’s attempting to light the beacons. Once lit, he can find a path home.
They have a wee party in the cave, Mell and Phee shamelessly flirt with Amidor.
Upon Phee using her skills to bloom Amidor’s petals, Mell knows when she’s barking up the wrong tree and starts flirting with Gleam. Neither are particularly successful.