Chapter 2, Part I: Island of Trials

The dirt path takes you down through rocky dunes, leading you to the driftwood archway of the tiny village of Shoalbank. It doesn't take you long at all to take in the entirety of the village. There are a few salt-worn and waterlogged wooden buildings along the main road, with only a dozen or so others scattered off the smaller, winding paths. You can see a few small and a few medium boats docked at the small piers.

In the distance, over the choppy water, you can see a tumultuous and violent storm swirling around an island just over the edge of the horizon.

The party arrived in Shoalbank after nearly a day's walk from Platinum City. The village was much tinier than that of the illustrious capitol, the smell of the sea's brine on the air.

They spoke with Uhfritz the harbormaster about procuring a boat, and provided the letter from the Chancellor. Uhfritz agreed to get a boat together for them and to help them get from the village to the small island just at the edge of the arcane storm that blustered in the distance.

The party took off in the boat, and their lack of seafaring experience was immediately apparent. Only Drez and Uhfritz were working to keep the boat on course, which resulted in a blow from a rock causing a hole in the bottom of the boat. The team worked together, using a combination of Firebrook's water shaping, Nohki's vine sorcery, Uhfritz's Boat-Gnomes, and a good deal of contribution from the rest of the team, until the hole was mended and they were able to continue on to Conclave Island.

Uhfritz docked the boat just shy of the rocks and the party climbed up from the cliffs towards the ruins they had been advised to approach.

They spent a bit of time exploring the ruins, and Bartholomew located a set of stairs leading down into the dark. As she breached the entrance way, three large stone statues began to animate, swords drawn, and advanced on the party. On their sides was an insignia illuminated from within.

As the majority of the team fought the statues, Bartholomew explored the chamber underneath the ruins. She noticed a pedestal with 11 symbols, but was unable to make out what the symbols were or how to interact with them, if at all. She headed back up just in time to see Drez crush a glowing crystal that stopped the statues' ability to heal the damage delivered. Vance fought bravely and effectively, cutting through the statue army alongside Nohki, who had turned himself into a bear. Xerxes, heroically, delivered a fire attack on the last remaining statue, nearly killing himself in the process.

As the rubble of the statues lay strewn across the ruins, Bartholomew re-emerged from the depths of the fortress and told the party what she had found below. Together, they headed down the stairs and into the heart of the fortress.



Completed: April 2023