Sisyphean Attempts at Self-Improvement

Realizations & Revelations

Prior to leaving Kyriel to deliver the tithe to Korrigan, Reggie and Thogun receive the items they requested from Dallon. For Thogun, that’s confirmation that Dallon’s artificer can create floating proximity mines to help protect the city from the impending pirate attack. For Reggie, it’s a full set of enspelled and sentient plate armor that Dallon admits is a bit temperamental.


Reggie’s taxidermied red dragon head from the chimera you killed back home arrives, but Reggie opts to keep it at Harborcrest rather than lug the oversized crate all the way to Korrigan’s place. And Thogun has an interaction with Ozzie and Kinea, who have - in the course of their research project - discovered the elder storm god Procan and seem to be struggling with their faith in Kord.


Sailing to Korrigan’s lair (and thus doubling the amount of seafaring experience of everyone aboard), the group cruises right into the bronze dragon’s coastal cave. Antonio supervises Krinn unloading the monthly tithe while Reggie heads up to see Korrigan. Tho tries to be helpful and casts invisibility on an unwitting Reggie, who doesn’t realize he’s invisible when he approaches Korrigan. After an awkward bit of icebreaking, Reggie becomes visible again to everyone else except Korrigan (who could see him the entire time). The dragon reveals the extent of the injuries he received at the hands of the exploding Balor demon during the Battle of Kyriel.


Korrigan leads the group to the storage room that was previously Reggie’s bedroom, and now holds a summoning circle with a Glabrezu demon named Mer’ulor trapped inside. Korrigan has already softened him up to be interrogated, and you learn critical details about Ar’unath’s domain, like a viable location to plane shift to. You also learn less critical details like the name of the local demon newspaper, and what kind of signage Mer’ulor’s favorite tavern in the capital city of Killdane has.


Wrapping up things at Korrigan’s, Reggie has his gauntlets’ teleporting ability restored, although the dragon is cagey about what happened to the Ring of Wishes that was in Reggie’s room. Korrigan also tells Reggie that the enchanted emblem of Mount Celestia he found in his childhood home is holding an aspect of his full potential, and can only be unlocked under certain conditions. Most likely requiring him to be in alignment with the Lawful Good nature of that plane of existence and its Aasimar inhabitants. Whispersail inquires about the Hollow Sea, which Korrigan confirms he’s heard of, but only knows that it’s far, far away. Maybe not even on or around this continent. He’s willing to ask some metallic dragon brethren what they know.


Finally, the last piece of information Korrigan has to offer you is this: he believes that Ar’unath has multiple schemes running concurrently on Aleria... and he’s pretty sure that one of them involves this so-called Pirate King and his unification of the pirate fleet in the Shattered Sea.


Arriving back in Kyriel and meeting with Azura and Odette, you find yourselves with another reason to seek out the Pirate King; Odette believes the best use of your group’s efforts during the impending pirate attack would be to use the opportunity to infiltrate Isalis and assassinate the Pirate King while their own defenses are weakened.


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544 words

Written for "The Bradbury"