2026.01.24 Session Notes

The Ember Study

• This space clearly exists in an extra-dimensional space outside of any "common" plane.
• The study of Tarir Al Khaleed represents the life of a brilliant, cultured, arrogant, evil, and power-hungry soul.
• There is a scroll on the desk, lying among magical odds and ends, that is addressed simply to "Blood of my Blood."
• Among the notable magical items in the room are a lightweight iron sphere, a necklace, a bottle that emits a fog cloud when unstoppered, a long spear that shows the face of an archon, screaming in death, and the engraved, swirling orb that Erash has seen many times in his troubled dreams.
• Erash steels himself, grabs hold of the orb, and is thrown into a vision while his corporeal form spews fire from every orifice.

Claiming the Ember Orb

The moment Erash's fingers brush the surface of the orb, he feels the explosion of heat vanish. Not cool – absent.

The world folds inward, and for a heartbeat, you are nowhere.

Then—
You stand in a vast corridor of blackened brass, walls glowing white-hot. Lava pours openly across the floor, yet you see a lone figure walking forward untouched. An efreeti noble, draped in gold and flame, carries the orb cradled in one palm.

As the orb pulses, the fire bends away.

Flames bow. Molten metal parts like water. As he drifts down the corridor, traps and snares awaken to his presence —then fall silent, their runes dimming, the triggers paralyzed, as the orb’s glow deepens from red to gold.

You feel it then:
This orb is not a shield against flame and harm. 
It is a declaration.

The vision fractures, fades, and reforms….

You see doors without seams opening soundlessly as the orb is raised. You see guardians—elementals, golems, living flame—halt mid-motion, their fury smothered into stillness. You see a great eye of burning hatred focus on you, then hesitate, confused, shackled by ancient commands it cannot disobey.

Another kaleidoscopic shift in awareness reveals one final image.

The orb is set into a socket of obsidian and brass. The vault breathes. Wards unravel. Power sleeps.
A thought—not a voice—settles into your mind:

“Do not force the flame. Command it. Carry me openly, and the fire will make way. Hide me, and the fire will test you.”

The heat rushes back. The orb rests in Erash's hand, warm and patient… as if waiting for him to decide where he is allowed to walk.

Blood of My Blood

After a lot of dithering, Erash finally cracks the seal on the scroll.

Blood of My Blood: 

It must be that my ultimate task remains unfinished if you are reading this. Regardless of what may transpire between the time this letter leaves my hands and reaches yours, know that my love is eternal as flame itself, and I understand the trials you must have faced to reach this place, the strength you must surely possess to have overcome them, and the questions you must still carry with you. I wish to grant you the time you need to ask and have answered all. The Ember Study exists outside of any known dimension in the multiverse, but it does not exist outside of time itself. I sadly have little time to give you, and you most likely have little time left to spend here. 

The script becomes a little erratic, as if the hand writing it was walking, or perhaps running out of time.

Within these pages lies a secret key that grants entry to a forbidden place. Only you, My Blood, and those you love may be granted passage. Dangers await you on this final part of the journey, some known and no doubt some new. The City awaits your call to freedom. My love and strength are at your side forevermore.

The next page is a somewhat hastily scribbled teleportation circle. The runes and diagrams are very different than others you’ve seen.

• The party decides to go to parts unknown instead of going back out the front door, drawing and using the teleportation circle provided in the scroll "addressed" to Erash.
• To hedge their bets, they first take a short rest.

Valgara’s Dream

For a moment, you are back beyond the veil. The cold, the stars. The suspended time. You stand in a place of impossible geometry—angles that shouldn't exist, paths that loop back on themselves, stairs that ascend and descend simultaneously. Everything is cast in shades of black, white, and silver. The Raven Queen's domain, or something like it.

Before you float seven points of cold light in the darkness.

A voice—many voices, all speaking as one—saying: "I have died a thousand times."

Golden eyes. Feline. Desperate. Burning with purpose and apology.

A plea: "Tell them I'm sorry. That I’m saving us. Tell them…”

The Raven Queen's words, sharp as winter:

Prepare them. The convergence approaches.

And then it's gone. You wake with frost on your fingertips despite the heat, and the certainty that this wasn't just a dream. This was a WARNING. But a warning about what? And when?

• Valgara shares her dream with the group, troubled, but remembering nothing more.
• Phelan's Lecture of the Week: A convergence can denote many things – a celestial event, a cataclysm, a religious apotheosis, a magical ritual, a turning of political tides, or something else entirely.
• The dream does not seem to be relevant to their current circumstances, though the involvement of the Raven Queen in affairs beyond their brush with Vecna is troubling.
• Snow can't help recalling that her adopted brother, who has long been missing, had eyes like the ones Valgara describes.

Beyond the Circle

• The teleportation circle transports the group into a small dark room of carved basalt.
• Using the orb, the party is able to trigger a door that lets them exit the space.
• In the next chamber, a large rotunda that seems to lead to the prisons, guardian statues mobilize but stand down when Erash lifts the orb.
• However, the orb does not work on what comes next... large creatures that emerge from the fiery pool of magma at the chamber's center.
• The monsters are defeated and turn to ash; they weren't from this plane, despite being born from the fiery pit.