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Sisyphean Attempts at Self-Improvement #1097355 added September 14, 2025 at 3:59pm
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This Is The Way
You start off putting Ezra straight to work as the new steward of your bastion, beginning construction on Antonio’s library, Big-E’s barracks, Reggie’s smithy (which will now be a freestanding building next to the keep rather than in his basement room), and Thogun’s sanctuary, to go along with Druid’s poison garden and the communal storehouse. The field conversion to a training arena is still in progress.
Everyone except Reggie makes peace with Nestis’ new position as her valet, and you fill Azura in on the basics of what you found in Calira, not making any mention of Big-E’s father, or the fact that his brother is the warlord gathering Ar’unath’s forces. You defer on the matter of the increased piracy in Isalis, telling her that you need to go to Loriell to meet up with a contact.
In Loriell, you reunite with Rhogar, proprietor of The Dapper Dragon outside of town. Big-E does an epic rendition of “Stayin’ Alive” during open mic night, bringing down the house and then performing a somewhat less successful rendition of “Don’t Stop ‘til You Get Enough” for an encore. You then return to Coel’s clothing store and all order nearly matching cloaks, debating repeatedly over whether to pick them up or have them shipped home to Harborcrest in Kyriel.
Upon revisiting the casino, you learn that Nicasia is currently away on business, but Big-E wastes no time getting comfortable at the piano again, performing “Just My Imagination” well enough to draw his father Elgin away from his newly discovered love for gambling, and the dwarven cougar who slipped Big-E her room key the last time you were in town.
When all of you have a chance to sit down with Elgin, he wonders why it took you so long to meet up, only to become immediately sympathetic when he learns that you’re unable to teleport. He takes pity on you and offers to teleport you to El-Bereth, a small desert town halfway between Loriell and Sarisa, where “The Way” is believed to be hidden in the catacombs of the local temple. Elgin parts ways with you to undertake another mission for Kord (walking off into the desert because he used his last teleport spell on you guys), but not before gifting his Big-E with one of two Sending Stones, keeping the other so they can communicate. Reggie promptly picks Big-E’s pocket and steals the Sending Stone for himself.
As you enter the temple just as Bigger-E’s forces are coming out of the catacomb with the artifact. You make short work of the two dozen cultists, plus their fighters, and mages ... much shorter than it takes Thogun to interrogate a murdered priest by casting Speak With Dead multiple times. One of the mages did manage to evade you, though, and remains at large.
In the end, you decide to take The Well and The Way both back to Harborcrest with you, stopping in Loriell on the way home to collect your new cloaks.
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499 words
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