Designated Drivers

The party are slightly concerned about their ability to make it home. Nandntiersanon is getting progressively more drunk and Merric tries his best to warn him against descending further. However, Merric's conclusion is that Nandntiersanon is already too far gone and that they will perhaps not be travelling home this day.

Jorund makes a friend who seems to make his money by bringing rich nobles to the House of Autumn in search of answers. He is drinking but remaining fairly sober. In exchange for some of the party's tales, the wizard tells Jorund that the sacrifices to Talos are happening all around the coasts of Faerun - and the popular consensus is that the clergy are trying to fuel Talos for some great cosmic battle.

During this, the party managed to learn the protocol for seeing the Seer. They head to see him in his strange uncured yet rot-free leather tent. On the approach, through the tent flap, the almost-sober yet extremely hungover Izz notices red skin and strange tailored slits in the back of jet black robes.

Seer

The seer’s tent emanates smoky incense. It takes the form of a tent, though the material is not one you have seen before - it appears as if it is perhaps an uncured leather but it shows no sign of rot. Antlers dangle in front of the flapped entrance, through a crack in which you can see a robed individual who appears hunched over and staring into some kind of brazier.

The smell of the room is overpowering. A mixture of scents - cinnamon, lavender, eucalyptus to name a few - which would generally be pleasant but are almost revolting when combined. Standing before you is a long-haired elf, his skin a deep red with bright orange and gold hair which is intricately braided and appears to distort as the air around a campfire does. Two giant bat-like wings protrude from tailored slits in his black robes embroidered with gold. His wings instinctively unfurl and stretch, as a bird preparing for flight, and display their full magnitude: a wingspan of at least fifteen feet.

The individual is hunched over a brazier which seems to hold a shimmering sky-blue liquid with stars twinkling in it. This defies the laws of physics, the water simply should be pouring through the gaps in its structure, yet here it is. The individual raises its right hand as you enter, imploring you to stop. A colourful tattoo fills the back of his hand, depicting a scarlet phoenix with demonic wings and a burning whip in its beak.

"You stand before the Seer of the Seven Citadels. Proceed at your own risk, for the gods speak through me and many a man has fallen victim to the anguish of true knowledge."

He turns as his sentence ends with a growl. His face is as deep red as his hands, framing eyes which appear almost reptilian: acid-green balls with thin black irises. "Speak."

Grageon

Grageon goes in to ask about the gods.

Aust and Izz

Aust goes in to ask about the fungus, joined by Izz.

You are the child of the Huntress of Unicorn Run. When you were born the very forests whispered your name in reverence, Aust Liadon. I see you carry a great burden yet you know not its magnitude.

• Aust recalls that there is a tale of Unicorn Run, a river in the High Forest. Each natural race is said to have emerged from the womb of Chauntea onto Toril at the river's source, and then traveled down the Unicorn Run to the outside world, watched over by the huntresses for generations.

• The seer has a vision of a beautiful bride whose children dance across her body. Her groom does not stand at the end of the aisle, and yet he is everywhere. The party theorise that this may be Lolth or Kiaransalee and somehow related to the Auramycos beneath the High Forest which calls to the drow through what they call the golhyrrl' fhaazht ("dream trap" in the common tongue).

Soon you will venture deep into forgotten realms. You will see wonders beyond imagination. But, be warned: the land itself rises up against you and long forgotten pain will smother your courage. You will sacrifice everything as the final darkness falls… only then understanding the footsteps you've been following in all along.

The seer had been looking over Izz's shoulder with a mixture of uncertainty and fear the entire time. Izz asks why.

You are watched over by one not unlike my ancestors. A great hungering power which permeates the multiverse… particularly so around you.

Jorund

Jorund enters to ask what part the spellscars have to play in all of the goings on.

One who walks with you is watched over by that which surrounds us. I sensed a tremor of emotion. Worry, anger, regret, love. A great debt was repaid and that was supposed to be the end of it, yet a part of the whole continues to fight for personal ideals. You are entwined in this fate but it is not your own...

Jorund presses for information about his own fate.

The pious man will often bend his interpretation of the tenets of his faith in order to remain pure. If you try hard enough, you can convince yourself and those around you that such divergence is for the greater good.

Jorund, slightly disappointed by the cryptic nature of the Seer's words, thanks the Seer and turns to leave. A final sentence follows him.

May she look favourably upon your decision to come.

Merric

Merric enters already resigned to disappointment after what he has heard. He is immediately frosty towards the Seer and questions his gifts. The Seer laughs.

I see that the gods watched with bated breath as your loved ones were slaughtered. They razed your homes, your farms, and your sacred places. Some of your kind tried to stop them… they failed. I see that you question where then were the gods?

Merric asks if he will ever save Otho.

Yes, but that is not the end for you. You have saved one and one remains, yet there is a third who is in more danger than any. The gods fear intervention for they know not this individual's fate, intertwined with that of primal evils, and destined for a greatness which spurns them.

Merric gives the Seer equally cryptic responses, speaking to the gods as much as he speaks to the man in front of him. After a tense exchange he leaves to drown his sorrows.

Merrymaking

The party, particularly Merric, drink the night away. Eventually they are joined by the individual who ran the drinking game (and his bottle of Carnage). He and Merric share this, barely holding onto their consciousness in the process.

Eventually the party convince him to share one of his tales. He recounts the supposed life story of the Seer.

Elves bred with the royal bloodline of Balors. They were imprisoned in the Seven Citadels’ War when their city was seized by the High Mages of the Great King Forest. After many centuries they were released and it is said that the Seer seeks to redeem his people for their sins by using his profane gifts.

Aust eagerly awaits the retrieval of his new porcine friend.