User blog:SatyreyesDM/To Ring Hollow

Before returning to Adastra, Seth and his party had a few things to take care of about the tower.

Seth had students to teach: Cara Poole and Suleima Istar. These two Black Robes were surprised and grateful that Seth, a White Robe, had singled them out for tutelage. With encouragement from Seth and his party, Suleima ultimately declared that she would seek to become the head of her Order on a permanent basis. She will be running against Aluthalas, former lieutenant of Ladonna, in a contest of endurance: the winner is the last to withdraw. Seth expressed interest in aiding her, and she suggested that he could do a favor for fence-sitter Juquan to help secure his support.

Seth wanted to learn more about the broken sparrow ring, so he cast an identify spell on it. This led to a nightmarish vision that indicated, if nothing else, that the ring is very profoundly broken. Considering how best to repair it -- and advance his ambition to make other wondrous items -- Seth spoke to Zephyrus Raptorr on the subject of alchemy: how could he gain expertise with the tools of his chosen trade? Raptorr gave him two leads: the Alchemists of the Golden Dawn, based in Palanthas in Solamnia; and the gnomes of Mount Nevermind.

At last, the wizards lowered the barrier around Wayreth Tower, admitting the crowd waiting on its periphery. While the heads of the Orders explained the situation to them, Seth and his friends saw to the Wolf. They rode wolfback to the point of its origin, stopping on the way to refresh it at a thin place leading to a wintry place that Seth called the Feyarbor. Here a collection of pale white trees proved to in fact be carnivorous arms and hands, which tried to eat Seth and his party. They were quickly warned away by force of arms, and Seth's party resumed their journey. Their path took them towards the port city of Porliost, where a late harvest of insil-hrava clued the party in that something had gone wrong here. But when they actually reached the city, they discovered that an eladrin invasion had turned into an immigration: the depleted ivory demesne had been welcomed into Porliost's racially diverse fold, partly because the town's elvenblossom wine was especially potent to the outsiders. The Wolf's master, a profanity-spewing eladrin captain named Milice, seemed bitter about the result, but promised to send the Wolf safely back to the Feywild.

Finally, Seth's party cautiously went to interrogate Mestari. Seth's one-time nemesis had fallen a long way, gibbering in his chamber like a madman. He spoke in rhymes and word-associations, making just barely enough sense that Seth suspected he was trying to communicate. Morden worked to restore Mestari's mind via a restoration spell, but his mind was broken enough that the spell was not instantaneous. It will be at least a week before Seth can interrogate Mestari and learn what destroyed his sanity -- and why he can still use his magic!

With all this done, Seth sought out Raptorr for a second time, and the archmage teleported him at last back to Adastra.