The One About The “Otherside”

Under the dim light of a secluded cage, Garian Ultio, the half-elf paladin, awakens abruptly to the jeering face of a red Dragonborn. Clad in heavy robes, the Dragonborn leads a troupe of cloaked figures who haul strange, purple-stained crates between portals. With each pass, the objects seem to vanish into thin air, yet Garian, bound and weary, remains keenly aware of the brute strength of these silent figures. Suddenly, the Dragonborn’s grin widens as he lifts Garian without effort, hoisting him high before casting him into a blue portal. The world twists and stretches around Garian, the sensation pulling him through reality itself.

Back in Keaton, the city’s Harvest Festival has reached a crescendo. While the streets buzz with the excitement of the final night, the remaining SevFi members feel an emptiness where their companion should be. Concerned but resolute, they seek out Officer Grizclark and after much prying, Grizclark offers news they dreaded: Garian has gone missing, his fate entwined with shadows beyond the guild’s grasp.

Yet, amidst the celebration known as the Veiling, where the boundary between the planes thins, even the grim news cannot fully cloud the spirits of Keaton’s citizens. Children don masks, and the air brims with mystery as revelers trade the customary farewell, “Safe travels,” lest they accidentally offend a visitor from beyond. The city pulses with life, masked figures thronging the streets, and SevFi, wary, but encouraged by Bahbahra’s solemn assurance—embraces the evening’s strange festivities, still determined to find their friend.

All the members of SevFI notice that somewhere in their rooms, there is a purple-ish, slimy substance near their beds, generally tucked away but not completely hidden. Quill takes a sample of it when he finds it, and Mitsuku attempts to taste it. When she licks it, she suddenly remembers things. She runs and finds Quill and tells this to her, and Quill also attempts to taste it. Memories of Nesja flood back into his mind.

Bahbahra also tells SevFI that there are some representatives from Caldwell Aquisitions here, as the guild called them in to help figure out how someone was able to hijack a portal so that it took GrizClark and Garian somewhere other than the dungeon.

In a twist of fate, Garian reappears, shaken but alive. He is taken to the guild hall’s presentation room by Grizclark. The reunion is bittersweet as he recounts his nightmarish ordeal—a journey through salt flats and riverbanks tainted by unnatural hues. He describes his captor, a Dragonborn with a hauntingly familiar face, one he thought he’d defeated long ago. Based on the description given, Grizclark makes mention that it sounds like he might have been brought back to life through the older practice of “gold-mending”. Garian also explains what the area looked like where he was being held captive. Bahbahra, taken aback by his description, explains that it sounds like he was in Gehenna. She also explains that this would make sense, as that is where Hyrdoloths are from.

Belladonna, having known Garian the longest among the members of SevFI, had an uneasy feeling about Garian. She could not shake the feeling that there was something just not right with him. She starts to question him, asking where his accent went. Garian tries to explain that he dropped it, as it wasn’t his real accent to begin with. Belladonna still continued to question Garian on various things, as Quill moved closer to her. Quill whispered to her, “Do you think he might be enchanted somehow? What exactly do you feel is wrong with him?” Belladonna replied to Quill, “I’m not completely sure, but I just am not getting the same feeling from him that I normally do.”

Quill Pluck listens intently, his feathers ruffled with agitation. With quick word under his breath, he cast “Detect Magic” and turns to look at Garian. To his surprise, he sees that Garian is completely shrouded in illusion magic. He casually walks over to Bahbahra and whispers to her, “Based on what I saw during our battle with the hydroloth, I believe you should be able to do this, but inspect the magic shrouding Garian.” Bahbahra gently taps her two handed battle hammer’s handle against the ground, and turns to look at Garian. She also sees the shroud of illusion magic surrounding him. She asks Quill for assistance casting Greater Restoration on him, as she wants to make sure that anything on his is dispelled. As she does this, the shroud is dispelled from around him. Quill looks around the room and sees the same shroud of magic around Grizclark, and points it out to Bahbahra. She casts Greater Restoration on GrizClark as well, which completely dispelled the Simulacrum spell, leaving just a puddle of water where he was standing.

Bahbahra was shocked by this, as she had been working close with him since his return. She looked at Garian and said “Believe me, this is the only way to know for sure”. Garian looked at her with a confused expression as Bahbahra swung her hammer with all her might, crushing Garian’s skull. She summoned Pip-pip to the room to bring Garian’s body to the medical wing of the guild hall and assured the party that she will resurrect him. The party followed Pip-pip and Bahbahra to ensure this happened. On his way out, Quill noticed GrizClark’s brass eye sitting in the puddle of water, and grab it.

In the medical wing of the guild hall, Bahbahra starts the resurrection ritrual. The party watches and Quill takes notes throughout the entire process. Garian’s body starts to regenerate itself, and as soon as its finished, he opens his eyes and sits up. Bahbahra apologizes again. SevFI, now fully together again, take some much needed rest.

Quill went to the library and continued to study the Dwarven language, but did not make much progress with the amount of activity going on around him. Thaskagh eventually meets him in the library and asks him if he knew anyway to be able to go to the realm of his ancestors and return. Quill said, there’s a few way probably, but most of them involve dying, which probably wouldn’t be his recommended way. He does think back and remembers Nesjra mentioned “Veil Walking” at some point, but he doesn’t know much about it. He says he can see what he can find about it, if Thaskagh is interested. Thaskagh agrees that this sounds like something worth looking into and says that if there is anyway he can help with this, to just let him know.

Quill also returns to his room briefly and inspects the brass eye. He performs a ritual to identify the properties of it. As the spell completes, he realizes the eye is more than it seems—a device bound to detect the unseen. As he knows that this was a gift from BasBo to GrizClark, he sticks it back in his pocket so that he can bring it to BasBo later.

Garian find Bahbahra again, and asks about the debt that he owes the guild. She offers a place on the Guild Peacekeeper Corps to him, and mentions that Thaskagh had been helping with this in an unofficial capacity already, and if they would both like, she can make it a more official position. Garian finds Thaskagh and explains this to him, and they both agree. They find Bahbahra again and tell her they would be intereted in this. She gives both of them official badges, explains their responsibilites, and gives them both two handed clubs. Upon further inspection, they both notice that these weapons have been inscribed by their previous owners with names. One club was called “Law & Order”, the other “Customer Appreciation”.

Bahbahra finds SevFI and tell them that the representatives from Caldwell Aquistions would like to speak with them now. The party heads to them and they talk about their experiences with the “Stage Door” portals in the realm where Troope de Termina preform, as these portals did not function the same way that normal portals do, since they did not connect to a specific single exit. Quill explained everything he learned about them while he was there. One of the representatives mentioned that they were also working with GrizClark on this matter, and Quill interrupted them, explaining that the GrizClark they were working with was not actually him, but a Simulacrum of him. SevFI also explain about the dragonborn and the hydroloth, and one of them talks about how the hydroloths eat memories. Quill shows them the vial of the supstance that he collected, and the explained that they will need to brew that almost like a tea and drink it, and it should return their memories.

The party gathers again in the center area of the town of Keaton, where many of the festivities were going on. They catch Garian and Belladonna up on the events that happened while they were away. The town is the fullest SevFI has ever seen. About ten minutes before midnight, they notice a gigantic flying draconic, but almost snake like, shape start to appear in the skies above the town. BasBo’s body twists and snakes its way around, almost blocking out the entire sky. Everyone in the town hears his voice in their head, gently thanking everyone for their time during the festival of The Veiling. He says that it is almost midnight, and that he will be closing the gates soon, and that it is time to say their goodbyes. All of SevFI look around as they notice almost half the crowd start to fade away and drift off with the autumn wind.

As this happens, Illiana, who’s had a pain in her wrist this entire day that has been getting worse the closer to midnight it became, notices the old woman in one of the shop stalls again. The woman is staring at her again, and waves a bloody hand at her. As Illiana gets up and starts to run towards the old woman, she vanishes.

Quill, realizing that he might be able to speak to BasBo through the same telepathic link he is using to talk to everyone else, explains that he found GrizClark’s eye after the Simulacrum was dispelled. He says that he knows that it was a gift from BasBo to GrizClark and that if he would like it back, he will gladly return it to him, or if he would like to see GrizClark’s legacy continue, that he will keep it with him on his journey and see if he would be able to use it some way. BasBo, touched by this offer, tells Quill that he can keep it and that the tinkerers in An-Jurra may be able to help him fashion it into something more usable for him.

SevFI ends the night, readying themselves to travel to An-Jurra in hopes of getting more answers about Mehara, the dragonborn.