#61 - Recovery, Gifts, and Many Things

Excerpt from the Cypher's Codex: The Scrawlings of a Warforged Scholar

Yet again I have proven the power of a well-timed Magic Missile infusion. Magnus and Rendar can perhaps do more damage but my unerring burst of magical force never fails me.  Raster-Reshizak was attempting a tactical retreat after suffering nearly irreparable damage from our coordinated attack. Not wanting to take a chance on missing with my armbow, I unleashed a powerful infusion of four bursts of Magic Missiles and the young copper dragon was disabled beyond repair. I will have to spend more time studying this relatively minor infusion, perhaps I can find a way to improve the potency of its damage or increase its range.

With the conclusion of the battle, we were able to assess our damages. Clarion was severely damaged, even after I had repaired him during battle. I quickly set off an infusion of repair in case more enemies were to come upon us.  Rendar was severely damaged, even to the core of his life force. Despite the healing magic Clarion provided, Rendar was unable to repair to his full capacity. He required the regeneration that only comes from slumber—I assumed.

Aleae immediately set about retrieving our stolen possessions. Along with our belongings she found several scrolls and potions. Over the course of two days I identified and inventoried them:

1 Potion of Invisibility

1 Potion of Water Breathing

1 Scroll of Melf’s Acid Arrow

1 Scroll of Fireball

1 Scroll of Animate Dead

1 Scroll of Vampiric Touch

1 Scroll of Glyph of Warding

Magnus examined the body of the defeated copper dragon and alerted me to his eye—a sphere of obsidian. I determined that it was some magical artifact but when I examined further, I was damaged just from touching the eye, first cold arcane energy then necromantic. I told Magnus I would need tools found in Wroat to identify the source of this artifice. Magnus immediately proceeded to hack off the dragon’s head using Rendar’s scimitar. I infused it with magical energy to assist him, although the process was quite tedious.

While Magnus attempted to decapitate the dead dragon, an unnatural fog quickly rolled over the area and obscured sight. Rungo, who had been standing guard down below in the caves, alerted me that the slumbering green dragon Sorethyress had awakened and was heading our way.  The mighty green was in a foul mood when she came upon us, and it was clear that she was still quite weak; she could barely climb up from the lower caves and we didn’t witness her fly even for a short distance.

Sorethyress interrogated Magnus over his beheading of Raster-Reshizak but I quickly placated her using a supplicant tone, once again reaching back to my studies of scholarly interactions with the ancient dragon race. Sorethyress immediately turned to me for an explanation, and in ancient Draconic I told her that we were sent to help her by the mighty King Boranel. Rendar had previously used his Mark of Finding to locate the Queen Wroann red jewel and I explained to Sorethyress that our providence was lodged within the belly of the fallen copper dragon. She pushed Magnus aside and proceeded to indelicately rip into the fallen beast. She plucked the jewel and tossed it to me. Satisfied for the moment, she told us to stay where we were and she would return after some time. We decided to rest and repair for the remainder of the day; I spent the time gathering scales from the copper dragon's corpse and extracting as many teeth from its head.

When Sorethyress returned that evening, she seemed to have more energy and was in a considerably better mood. She was willing to answer many of our questions, a rare treat to have an ancient dragon as an advisor. We made use of the opportunity, although Sorethyress did not have all the answers we sought. One thing of note that she relayed was her knowledge of Avishad, the creature with whom we had crossed paths on the airship and who supposedly wreaked havoc in the Seren Isles since Magnus’s departure. Sorethyress recognized the name Avishad as the name associated with a Rakshasa.

I had read about these ancient tiger-headed fiends of Khyber. Rakshasa’s were disciples of the great demons slumbering in the Dragon Below. Shapechangers and illusionists, they are master planners who spend many thousands of years working toward the utter disruption of the plane of Eberron. Some rumors suggest that Rakshasa’s even live amongst the populace of Eberron’s cities and towns. According to Sorethyress, Avishad was said to be a member of the Bleak Council, a ruling group in the Demon Wastes, and is suspected to be the chief servant, or prakhutu, of the great rajah known as Katasha the Gatekeeper. We have encountered this name before, first below Paluur Draal then again when the medusa priestess Zarasha told us what she knew.

Magnus asked Sorethyress about Vensharatyrx, the white dragon associated with the Winter Coalition, and about Lucerix. She said she knew of both but would say little else on the subject.


Sorethyress also instructed us to tell King Boranel to send an emissary to take further instruction from her when Nymm, the yellow moon known as The Crown is full, which would be in a little over two weeks. Further communication with Sorethyress would go through His Majesty King Boranel, for she did not fully trust us.

Yet in recognition of our assistance she gave us what she deemed a rare and powerful device from her treasure hoard known as the Deck of Many Things. She gave it to Rendar and instructed us not to draw from it until we reached the border of the forest, and she sent a will-’o-wisp to guide us through a shortcut in the forest. She told us to be on the lookout for quasits, the small imp-like demons summoned by the copper dragon, for she could smell them and sense their presence but was too weak to “ferret them out.” She said it was likely they would follow us, if they were in league with our enemies.

Will-'o-wisps are said to be fey
spirits, but they are malicious
and feed off the fear of
others. In folklore and reality,
they are well known for
leading the lost to their
deaths.One which
serves a dragon, however,
could certainly serve a
contrary purpose. 

The dryad, now less inclined to harm us and clearly allied to the green dragon, asked Rendar if he would stay with her. I didn't understand why, nor the reason for her assuming a half-elf shape with the subtle features of a half-orc female. Although Rendar declined, she gifted him with what I learned was a Cloak of Elvenkind. In appearance, it is simple, a garment of soft gray material but evidently possessing powers of camouflage.

Sorethyress then told us to go. I was not able to examine the will-’o-wisp closely when it appeared, for the green dragon had advised us not to. It was a buoyant sphere of white light and seemingly retained an electric charge—if its energy was self-renewing, surely such a creature could be used to power an untold number of artifice-made devices! It remained a distance from us, leading us through unseen paths through the evening hours.

After traveling for two days through the forest, the will-’o-wisp vanished from sight as we arrived at a small abandoned village on the edge of a cliff. This was the edge of the domain of Sorethyress and the eastern border of the Dragonwood itself and we could see the plains of Breland below, as well as the Orien caravan road and a lightning rail in the distance.

We settled down in one of the ruined stone buildings to draw from the Deck of Many Things. Rendar went first, as he was instructed by Sorethyress. He had become preoccupied and silent during our travels. The half-orc was always soft-spoken but had become even more so since the Deck of Many Things was entrusted to him, “one marked by prophecy.”

I then observed a series of strange, most invisible phenomena as each of my companions drew a card from the deck, which Rendar laid down on the stump of a tree. As each card was drawn, we were able to see what it depicted, and was named, then the card vanished.

Rendar drew first. His card was called Talons, depicting a pair of red claws. I discerned little at first, then became aware of two facts: (1) All of his clothing and equipment had vanished, except for the Cloak of Elvenkind the dryad had given him. (2) His dragonmark had expanded and now covered nearly the whole of his body.

Clarion drew the Gem. I could see little change in him, save for the increased gleam of his composite plating.

Aleae drew the Sun. Nothing happened to her body but when the card disappeared from her hand, it was replaced by a jewel-encrusted wand.

Magnus drew the Jester. When it vanished, he immediately reached down and drew two more cards—presumably instructed by the first card. The next cards were Flames and The Void. Magnus began to sweat profusely, then moments later collapsed into unconsciousness. This may be concerning.


When it was my turn to draw, I didn’t want to take the risk of losing my possessions as Rendar had, so I sent Rungo away to stand guard outside and I stripped myself of all my belongings.

I drew from the deck and pulled a Ruin card.  There were no obvious effects that I felt so I quickly inventoried my things. All of my coins were gone but thankfully those were the only things missing. While other’s drew from the deck I took a closer inventory and noticed that the magical matrix of my armbow had been disturbed. A cursory examination revealed that its magical power had increased; it was now a weapon of greater destruction, capable of corroding armor and the life force of a living creatures with greater ease.


Sorethyress had told us we could each select only one card unless granted by the deck to select another (as the Jester had), and that after the last of us took from the deck it would disappear. This it did.

However, I found my curiosity too strong to deny and while Magnus picked his card, the last of us to do so, I surreptitiously infused another card with Indisputable Possession. When the deck disappeared, I activated the infusion and the card appeared in my hand—briefly. But when I turned the card to see the effects it vanished again and I had an intense impression of some being’s great displeasure in me. No further information was gathered.

Rungo alerted me to a group on incoming hostile creatures by air and we saw a group of winged shapes through the trees to the south, flying toward us. We quickly realized these were wyverns. Rendar, who was behaving oddly, identified with a strange certainty the presence of Drazul d’Tharashk, the excoriate half-orc we had last seen inside Paluur Draal. (Magnus, Rendar, and I last saw him in the throne room of the Governor, where he had been allied with Avashad, soldiers of the Emerald Claw, various undead, and abberations of the Dragon Below.)

We began our preparations for battle.