Dawnbreak things

The Castle

The outside courtyard is protected by a curtain wall in which there are sizable ramparts, a double layered portcullis with a gatehouse and murderholes, a couple of scout towers, and several siege weapons turned toward the water - including several trebuchets and what must have been, at the time, a shiny new ballista - which seems to have been repaired and maintained over the years by various inhabitants, though it's looking kind of worn again. The lack of a drawbridge or moat likely does make it more vulnerable to being taken by land forces, but its high position on the cliff gives it great vantage on the surrounding lands and into Northgard Sound. There are some arrow slits in the walls, but it looks like greater care was given to creating a large platform at the back of the castle, toward the sea, to move siege weaponry or amass archers.

There's a big dovecote in the courtyard as well, long abandoned, a couple of wells, and a large apartment mansion that look to be for guests, soldiers' families, or in troubled times, supplemental barracks for reinforcements. The apartments are a collection of numerous, interconnected rooms grouped into distinct sections, dusty with scarce furniture and it looks like someone made a mess of this place sometime in the past. It's also -really- dusty, and during the evening you hear faint noises from this building.

Ground Floor: The main entrance opens into the Great Hall, where you saw the Darkened Girl and put the others to sleep. It's a two-story affair, with floor having six large dining tables, along with a raised dais where a table is turned to face them all. There's a big fireplace on the eastern side, which probably shares a chimney system with the kitchen downstairs. Some walkways line the upper floor, letting people see down here, and there's also a cubby for musicians to play in above the entrance.  You get the sort of feeling that while this was largely meant to be a military instillation, the residing commander and his family likely lived here as a lord and enjoyed fair entertainment. There are two wings from here -

The East Wing is where you popped out of from the stairwell. This wing is where all the servants' quarters and non-food storerooms are at. You also spot a room used for the storage of beer barrels, a buttery, as they were called. A stairwell in the buttery leads down to the spirit cellar where wine would be stored, if it weren't vinegar by now. ...Actually there are a few casks that seem to be more recent, like a few decades ago. Not wine, but whiskey, in oak barrels. It's labeled, 'George's Mountain Bandit Whiskey'.

In the west wing are barracks, where the majority of the cultists had been staying. Going through their personal effects you find dragon-adjacent trinkets, statuettes, and holy symbols. Tiamat's symbols depict chromatic dragons, usually one of or all five between white, red, blue, black and green. You find a fair bit of gold change stashed around, too, the exact amount I'll get to you later. There are a shitload of bunked cots. There's also an armory, with a disappointing lack of magic items, and a multi-denominational chapel. The usual shrines are here and... oddly intact considering the defacement at the Eleven Watchers. They've been moved out of the way though, to make room for shrines to Tiamat and Asmodeus. No shrine for Vecna that you see, but maybe they eschew those.

In the basement, as you know, are the fishing hole, the docks, the dungeon, the kitchen, the larder and the pantry. The larder looks to be stocked with bulk packages of odd items; expensive cheeses, vegetable and livestock produce from Blackbaron (packaged in accompanying crates marked with the name of local farms), and a small amount of preserved luxury meats. Some of the crates seem like they were smashed open and cobbled back together hastily, and you notice very large clawmarks on some as well. The pantry is far less stocked, with a few bags of flour and a couple of pathetic loaves of homemade bread as whipped up by an amateur. The kitchen's enormous fireplace is the main source of cooking with a number of hotplates, griddles and stewpots with hangars of adjustable lengths. Spiky, chandelier like implements hang from the ceiling, a few impaled with fresh rabbits and a pheasant. A pot of stew that was left bubbling on the fire was clearly meant for the cultists once they finished their ritual - rabbit stew from the looks of it. The wine cellar is somewhere beyond the walls here as well, but has no connection with the rest of the facilities here - the only way in is the stairwell in the buttery.

Upstairs you find a number of halls and rooms, including the Knight Commander's bed chambers, his cabinet (like a study), his wife's boudoir (which had been converted into a ritual room for the cultists - though it seems Salem had taken to hanging out in there too). There's also an old timey sitting room for the lord commander's family, called the Solar, as well as a war room for military discussion and strategizing.

The Lord Commander's bed chambers seems to have been claimed by the head of this Tiamat sect, which according to Shane would be Miriam Grey, one of the unconscious prisoners. In here you find a number of luxury items: perfumes, jewellery, fine clothes, and rare books. You also find an amulet that's been made with a dark colored dragon scale, which some research and questioning from the kids tells you that it's one of Kal'rinesse's scales. This item was entrusted to Miriam by the Iron Dragon as part of their pact of cooperation, and granted her additional power to bring to his aid, or her own. However, this magic could be inverted as well, to sap Kal'rinesse of some of his strength and rob him of the full power of an adult Iron Dragon. I'll stat out a magic item for it later.

In the cabinet, you find some scant remnants of the original lord commander's chambers, ravaged for their valuables as they have been over the centuries. Mostly furniture remains. It's been converted into a hedonistic pleasure den for the cult heads, it seems. Perverse implements, shelves of fine alcohol and tobacco, and boxes of powdered narcotics are bound in this room, though you also spy a rather nice painting on the wall that's survived the ages too. It depicts the old hero Magnus Caernwright fighting at the Battle of Four Armies some three hundred years ago. He wears the Invulnerable Coat of Arnd in the picture - in this form taking the appearance of a gallant suit of full plate with Caernwright's own personal crest emblazoned on it. Eli feels a strange sort of resonance between the replica he's wearing and the painting - not exactly like a magnetic pull, but if you had to put it in words... somewhat of a sense of longing? Magnus was one of the old Heroes with a capital H, a man renowned across the nations and larger than life, something in the vein of Perseus.

The Solar isn't much to look at. Just a few chairs, a table, and a side room with a wardrobe that's empty. It seems to have been stripped of most things, in fact, in an attempt to keep its prisoner from escaping - a merchant named Frederica (see far below) who apparently had charmed her way into better quarters and was trying to negotiate her and the other prisoners' release with the cultists over an extended period.

The ritual room has been in place for a few weeks now, by Sable's guess and has been used for summoning devils, making bargains, and a number of other things. She thinks they summoned more than just Salem and the Darkened Girl (a name Sable actually uses to refer to her) but she thinks they might be mostly imps and gone into hiding. She's certain she can flush them out, though, and seems to relish the thought of having fun with that. There's an occult statue in here as well, depicting the father of devils, Asmodeus. When you look upon his visage, imagine the classic depiction of the Devil. Horns, spade tail, red skin, hooves, the whole deal. But in lieu of a pitchfork, he holds a ruby scepter, and his garments are fine robes, his hands adorned with many rings. It radiates faint magical power that seems to be related to summoning - and probably enhances any summoning magic used here, whether that's devils or ghosts or what.


THE KIDS

Carol: Hjuran with long, brown hair and an oddly carefree attitude. She's 18, and joined the cult of Asmodeus through her family when she was a child, but her parents were killed when they croossed the border and tried to raid a Church of St. Jenissa. Carol doesn't feel too upset at the Khudalian church though and recognizes that her parents were bad people and that she wants to be a better example of a worshipper of Asmodeus. To her, Asmodeus's command of "Go forth and conquer." is interpreted as a positive message to overcome challenges in her life and explore the world to her heart's content. She tends to be recognize legitimate authority and was the most reluctant to leave the Dark Petitioners with her friends.

Peggy: A cambion with long, pink hair and tattoos. The daughter of a goblin and a succubus, she nonetheless greatly resembles a standard tiefling, but with telltale signs that most Khudalians would able to use to distinguish her as devilborn. Namely her eyes have black scleras instead of white ones, and she smells faintly of brimstone. She has the most bizarre family tree among her group of friends and comes from a very rural swamp in Ashenia. She seems to immediately pick up on Azalea being a hag and gets along rather well with her. Not as morally driven as the rest of her friends but also has no great desire commit acts of atrocity, so that's good. She views Amosdeus's desire to conquer the world as an allegory for uniting the hearts of men under the banner of pragmatism and efficiency.

Shane: A muscular blonde half-fae hjuran. Once you spend enough time around him, you notice when he relaxes, gills can be seen on his neck. Yeah, turns out he's half mer, the humanoid fishfolk fae of the Sea Lords. He tends to go with the flow, but can be outgoing when something interests him. He admits when he was a kid, he wanted to grow up to be a pirate and hunt all of the ocean's lost treasures. The cult of Tiamat seemed like a better idea when he started to mature, since they look after their own - something he wasn't so assured of with pirates. He's kind of concerned about the fate of the other Tiamat cultists, including the one you killed, but he doesn't raise a stink over it. He wishes they could have gone down a better path, though. He seems really excited about the prospect of expeditions, and wants to make a trip to Legend sometime to see the Cartographer's Guild.

Ralph - A tanned hjuran with a strange obsession for games. Board games seem to be his favorite, with standbys like chess and go, but he also has an enthusiasm for more complicated custom games with long rulesets, pieces, and elaborate boards. His goal is to start a commercial empire making these games, and to make it in the world of business, he wanted to learn from the realm's greediest. He doesn't think greed is necessarily a bad thing if it's tempered with ethics. He's also passionate about gardening.

Kevin: A minotaur with short, blonde hair. Bit of a 'dude' guy with a strong moral compass. He's really into the religious side of the cult of Tiamat and thinks she got a raw deal from Bahamut and that the dude owes her a big apology, like seriously, along with concessions from the greater Church of Bahamut. He believes hunting chromatic dragons for sport should be banned and that the adventurer economy often encourages some hella shady practices, putting those with the power to pay in control regardless of their intentions, heavily influencing the natural ecosystem of areas through careless slaying, and often leaves people more dependant on waiting for heroes to sort out a mess rather than trying to figure out how to fix it themselves. He doesn't think adventurers are all bad or anything, but he's not really satisfied with the current system and thinks it could maybe use an overhaul or some regulations.

Sarah: The surprisingly frank Vecnaite. She's a hjuran with short, dark hair and a cynical but pragmatic view of things. As the sole worshipper of Vecna in the group, she was forced to keep her religious affiliation a secret in Blackbaron or face persecution by the church, so for a while she pretended to be a member of the Asmodean sect. Here, she's usually blunt and open about how she feels and quick to criticize, but also reticent about her personal past or why she decided to worship Vecna. She does however, tell Lycoris with no uncertain terms that she has no interest in undermining the Church of Ioun and mostly wants to be left alone by the greater church - but she seems willing to collaborate with Lycoris specifically if she requests it.

The Former Prisoners

Judge Sybil Brightshield - Paladin of Bahamut, Blackbaron temple. She's a minor judicial authority in the theocratic government and is part of a circle that oversees domestic disputes in court. She's also a reserve Temple Knight and when no court dates are set for a while, she tends to volunteer for patrols. Most recently she was part of a recon and rescue team sent to investigate why merchants had been going missing and if it was related to the reports of a dragon. Her reports would have been given to the Temple Knights, who then would have decided if and how to act themselves, or if they wished to call on the Warrior's Guild. She was attacked by the cultists of Tiamat as part of a random raid and she and her fellow clergy taken prisoner. She did not personally witness Kal'rinesse's involvement, but has overheard conversations leading her to believe that they've been working directly with him and that you might be interested in talking to the merchants.

Frederica Astralogos Willham-Culverin - A Pandoran, oddly enough, though it wasn't immediately apparent by her appearance or her name. She looks as a fairly standard Hjuran with pointed ears, deep red hair and exceedingly fancy clothes - in fact it seems she was allowed to keep her garments, unlike the other merchants who were stripped bare. The adopted heiress of the estates of the the Willham and Culverin families, she saw the writing on the wall when the Barony Repossession Act was being drafted. She prematurely broke up her fiefs, sold her land to the vassals who lived on it, and began investing in trade while encouraging the social turnover. As a result, she was able to keep her sizeable estate in Legend and to this day earns a wealthy income overseeing imports and exports. She was once offered entry tot he cult of Tiamat, but denied the opportunity. When she accompanied one of her trade shipments heading from Legend to Avandra's Landing, she was assaulted by the dread dragon Kal'rinesse and the cult. She ordered her guards to stand down, knowing the dragon was beyond their ability to defeat, and surrendered to the cultists, keeping their lives in exchange for their goods and the oxen pulling their wagon (which were devoured by Kal'rinesse on the spot). Despite having spurned the cult before, her wits and silver tongue were enough to stay on their good side during their imprisonment - though she was disliked by Abigail, who was unable to drink her blood for sustenance. She was able to gather a fair bit of information from the cultists during their stay. She thinks poorly of the Rebels of a Noble Cause, citing them as short sighted and ultimately somewhat incompetent, though she also apparently pays their tab at the Black Bear Inn out of pity. She was familiar with the noble you beat on the road, as well. One Reginald Tortuga, a minor former baron that had previously been a member of the aforementioned Rebels until he was fed up with their rather nonviolent and ineffectual methods. She learned that he was looking to join the cult, and to do so was prepared to gather live dryads for their sap - a reagent that would have enhanced the dreaming ritual they undertook. Left to his own devices, Tortuga would have likely tried to push the cult to more directly influence the churches and weaken their power and authority. Oh, and by the way, she insists you call her by a pet name. Never her full name, only strangers have to use the full name. Fred, or Freddy, or Rica, or Astra, she suggests. 'But I won't hear a single 'Ms. Willham-Culerin, no no no.'

The rest of the faces are mostly small time merchants, guards and clergy that seem exhausted.


The Barf Scroll

This crackling scroll of power is three things - a contract, a ritual, and an instruction manual. Firstly, the Contract. It states that the information provided is given to the Signatory Party (aka you all) in exchange for, on this single occasion, the sparing of the Contractor's current manifestation on the mortal plane - a summoned devil can't actually be killed by normal means; they instead discorporate back to the Nine Hells, but the process is quite painful and exhausting. It is signed by "The Darkened" and has a mark in the signature portion intended for you all. Silver would recognize this mark from their excursions into the underworld bureaucracy, a charm that gives implied consent through a party's words or actions, in this case, Lycoris telling them to give the information and then get lost. This mark is non-binding and only serves as a placeholder to sustain the contract's power in the event that it is not immediately signed with both parties present. It gives the signatory parties the freedom to either sign properly, completing the contract, or to not sign with no further penalty. The Darkened's name, however, is binding to them. They cannot revoke this contract under any circumstances. Secondly, the ritual. On signing the contract, all signatory parties will be granted the Dream Walk ritual. Even those of you who do not possess the Ritual Caster feat will be able to use it just fine. In return you will be required to forfeit any claim to ending the Darkened's manifestation at the time of the contract forging. Which, granted, is a time that's already passed. Thirdly, the manual explains that the ritual is the same as what was taught to the Tiamat cultists.

Dream Walk is an ancient Fey magic, associated with Sehanine, the moon, and the Gloaming Fey, obtained at great cost to the Darkened. Its practitioners can enter the subconscious through the world of dreams.

Cast as a ceremony with multiple participants, the casters can astrally project themselves into a dream. This is a concentration intensive process and the things one can do in the dream are myriad once there.

The more casters involved with the ritual, the greater the effect of actions performed in the dream, but also the greater danger to the group of casters. If one of the casters were to be killed during the ritual, for instance, the others might all suffer a form of backlash in the form of vivid nightmares or even death themselves. In some cases, individuals affected as such may eventually wake up, shaken, but unharmed. In others, well... As a devil's contract is wont to do, the Darkened's text goes into excruciating detail about how death might be a preferable option compared to the psychological damage that might occur, or in some cases, the formation of powerful aberrations known as Beholders. Such a tangle could also be undone by a different group of casters, if they had reason to. The Darkened goes on to mention that undoing such a bind would give the opportunity to have power over the afflicted stronger than a simple suggestion.

Along with the ritual scroll is also something else. A compass, from the looks of it. It's a fairly large one with a bubble-dome over the needle. It also has a magical display with floating words on the southern edge, reading "The Maiden".

The Everquesting Compass
Artifact
Property: This magical compass takes on a vague concept spoken to it, and then picks three among items, people or locations of great renown that are related to that concept. Currently locked in is the concept of "The Maiden" and this cannot be changed at present.
The crystal ball display will cycle through displays of its targets, its needle will display the direction to the displayed target, and the display will display the distance.

The Maiden:

"The Scepter of Maiden Lorelai, Empress of Å̸̈́v̴͊͝ă̵͌l̴̈́͋o̸͌͋n̸̓̓i̶̋̽a̶̒̊" The display has glitched out letters near the end, displays a long, golden scepter clutches in a skeleton's hand. The compass points due west and the distance is over a hundred miles.

"The Hunting Camp of the Maiden": The display shows a simple looking hunter's camp, southwest by some twenty eight miles.

"The Maiden of Gullnest". The display shows a sunken ship, its bow featuring a bust of a mermaid. The compass points north by northwest, forty six miles.